Chaotic We Stand
by Writer-Rigel
Summary: 20 years after the events of Battle Network,the world is a changed place. A group known as the Chaos Union has disbanded, leaving their children to face a threat that arises from all sides. An imagining of the future of BN, with elements from MMX and MMZ.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its characters, places, storylines etc. Capcom owns that. Everything else is the intellectual and physical properties of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** The moment many of you have been waiting for has arrived! The novelized adventures of the new Chaos Union!

(cheers and applause)

For those of you coming to this story tabula rasa, let me inform you of another latin term you should know. En media res. It's a story in which the main action begins after several events have already occured. In this case, those events are the roughly 5-year history of the Chaos Union, parts of which aren't even worked out yet. So that's why I wrote this prologue.

This prologue, covering roughly the first year or so of the Chaos Union, traces from their beginnings to their induction as an ONB strike force, and gives a brief glimpse into the future, before we jump to the present day. The prologue begins sometime between BN 5 and 6, where Lan isn't active as much, giving the CU purpose, and it ends roughly 8 years later. As to the rest...you'll just have to wait and see.

And one last thing. This fanfiction is roughly based of the events occuring in the Chaos Union's own forum, Rockman.exeChaos. I'm fairly sure won't let me put up hyperlinks, so just go to my profile and click on the link for my homepage. That's all! Enjoy.

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

_It was never meant to be defiant. The Chaos Union wasn't even titled so until a few discussions after they first met. Chaos Alpha, Warrior of Mystery. Chaos Beta, Warrior of Impulse. Chaos Gamma, Warrior of Destiny. Just three juvenile netbattlers who wanted some comrades in the fight against darkness. But how it grew, how it grew._

_Shroud Taruka and Link Blades met at the Electopia Metroline. Shroud was a newcomer to the area, fresh from the harsh environment of Nation Z. Link was new as well, but to netbattling rather than Electopia. They encountered a bored traveler, who challenged them to a battle…a battle they lost. Hopes dashed, the two might have parted ways, forever altering history. Yet fate had other plans._

_- _

Shroud Taruka finished applying a FullEnergy Subchip to his navi, Shadow X. The 17-year old teen from Nation Z was of moderate height, and his black hair fell to his shoulders. A brown cloak was draped around his shoulders, and he swept it aside briefly, revealing a white shirt and black jeans. He locked his PET in its protective belt holster, ensuring it and his battlechips were secure.

He then watched as the wanderer walked off. His navi had been quite experienced, and it seemed that the rules to netbattling here were different from in Nation Z. It was every man for himself there, and this alternation between attack and defense was new to him. It seemed that he would need to fight whoever he could in order to master this style. Perhaps the boy who now stood beside him might aid him in that regard.

Linksan Blades was a bit of an enigma. The 11-year old boy was obviously Electopian; their youths had an innate skill with navis that others normally didn't possess. His spiky brown hair was held in place with an azure band, and he wore a bright red shirt and shorts. He and his navi, Crusaderman, seemed to be constantly in an argument. He looked knowingly at his navi, Shadow X, while Link began to bicker with his partner.

"Crusaderman! When I tell you to log out, you log out, you hear me!" The prepubescent Link's voice slightly squeaked in anger, but his navi seemed rather calm, at least in comparison.

"We could have won, Link." Crusaderman's scathing voice silenced Link, but the navi seemed surprised. "If only this quitter over here hadn't told you to log me out."

"What! I should have let him delete you, you little-"

"X." Shroud's words silenced the navi. "We did our best. Now, Link, would you like to accompany us to a café? I'll buy." He extended a hand of friendship to him, hoping that the boy was wiser than he appeared, and he wasn't making a mistake in befriending him.

Time would show that he made no mistake that day. Link eagerly took Shroud's hand, pumping it up and down with youthful vigor. And as they walked towards the café, another future player in the Chaos Union studied them as he walked behind.

Matthias Terre had been wandering the city, having a day off school. He truly didn't want to attend Dentech Academy, despite his rather high intellect. Rather, he had been looking into joining the ONBA, the Official Net Battlers' Association, with his navi Galaxyman. After all, you could join once you were 16, and Matthias' birthday had been roughly six months ago. Still, there was his father to worry about. Ever since their mother's death while he was young, Nathanial Terre had been quite the overprotective parent.

Shroud and Link sat down within the café, and a waiter came up to them. "I'll take just coffee, please," Shroud said. The waiter raised an eyebrow at him but continued to Link.

"Triple caffeine lemon latte, hold the lemon."

The waiter wrote the order down and left, eying the odd pair strangely. He brought the drinks back and set them on the table with an expression of confusion and disgust.

"So, Shroud, I was thinking. Maybe we should join forces or something." Link took a sip of his drink, pupils dilating with every sip. "We could be some sort of union, like Commander Beef and his partners."

"Mind if I sit here?" Matthias' interruption pulled Shroud out of his reverie. He looked the boy over. He looked only a year or so younger than himself, probably a sophomore. It had been a while since he'd had time to be bothered by schools. The boy's hair was a dark brown, and it was cut short, not a strand long enough to pose a threat to his vision. Blue eyes looked over the two as Shroud nodded.

"Why not? Link, you don't mind, do you?" Link shook his head, and slid over so Matthias could pull a chair up to the table. "The name's Shroud. This caffeinated kid over here's called Link."

"My name's Matthias Terre. It's nice to meet you both. Did I hear something about a netbattling union?" Just like that, fate stepped in to change three lives forever.

-

_Matthias eventually managed to get the group a home, at NAXA, the space center at which his father worked. They steadily began gaining members, some of whom stayed with them and others who left, not finding what they were looking for. Their earliest adventures dealt with discovering the secrets behind Shroud's navi, and fighting forces from Nation Z. Eventually, Shroud left the group to return to his homeland, leaving Matthias in charge. He led the team, but things weren't really the same._

_- _

Matthias typed something into his laptop and returned to the list of Chaos Union members. A thunderstorm brewed as he adjusted the activity list, moving members around and looking at the results, a rather motley crew, but one he'd depended on for the last few months.

Link, of course, was on the list, but with quite a different navi. One of the Nation Z generals had corrupted Crusaderman, and the preteen didn't have the funds to repair him. So he'd been forced to take a generic navi, one he'd named Sonic. Still, the two had managed to bond together better than he and his old navi ever had.

There was also J.G. Yukamara, a mercenary whose navi, Kitsune, had managed to assimilate the data of a super virus. The vulpine navi was now an incredibly quick navi, with fiery attacks and demeanor. In addition, a boy named Pavo had joined, a year or two older than Link and a perfect match for the random child. His navi, Radioactive Turkey, was the levelheaded one of the two, and that wasn't saying much.

And then there were Lica and Brian. Two high-level ONB who'd joined their ranks and managed to become quite helpful in their own right. Lica was a feisty young girl whose navi, Strike, was an expert of finding the perfect way to defeat an opponent. As for Brian, the teen was a year younger than he was, but had been an accomplished criminal before deciding to fight against crime with his powerful navi, Ziel. Regretably, both were out, fighting the Underking, Serenade.

The most recent members were Pavo's sister, Candy, and Golex Tjon. Candy was actually one of Matthias' first opponents, but had only recently shown interest in the Union, alongside her navi, Lovely Angie. As for Golex, he was a bit of a conundrum. A serious teenager, yet his navi was the slightly insane Hyperman. Still, both had shown great interest in the Union, and looked to be quite helpful someday.

A sudden sound caused him to raise his head. He almost didn't recognize the figure that walked through the door. "Shroud?" He stood and walked around his desk, looking at his friend. "You're really back, for good?"

The battle-scarred teenager nodded. "I'm back, Matthias. For good, I hope." He slumped into a chair off to the side. "I…I killed him, Matthias. He was going to kill my father, and I killed him." Matthias stood silently. Murder…he'd never thought Shroud would be able to do anything of that nature. Hell, he couldn't think of anyone he knew who could kill another.

"Shroud…" There was nothing to say. The moment passed; Shroud lifted his head as if nothing had occurred.

"Now, what's happened in my absence? I've heard rumors of your growing numbers." Shroud stood and walked over to Matthias' desk, flipping through the roster. "And I see they're true."

Matthias nodded and walked over to stand beside him. "The two at the bottom are our newest recruits, Candy and Golex."

"Pavo's sister? I thought she was with Triad?"

Matthias shook his head and pulled up a saved article on his laptop. "Nope. They disbanded." The article opened, proclaiming the loss of one of the few major crime syndicates left. "The only member still active in thievery is Liam Angel, but he shouldn't be much of a problem. EON's still a threat though."

Shroud dismissed that by turning to the window. "EON's scarcely stronger than Triad was. If we're lucky, they'll destroy themselves. What of Serenade?"

Matthias had hoped he wouldn't ask that. "Serenade…he's finally managed to create a Dimensional Chip, and he's used it to attack Creamland. Lica and Brian are already there." Shroud seemed disheartened by this news, and Matthias stood beside him at the window. Thunder clashed as they stood there, statues looking into the future. "Shroud, if I might ask...what are your plans for the Chaos Union?"

Shroud looked over at Matthias, idly rubbing a scar on his chin Matthias had never seen before. "Enforce the Net, Matthias. Just as before."

"I'm not sure that's enough. Not anymore." Matthias sighed, unwilling to face Shroud with his conclusions. "Maybe not all of us…but some of us need to go rogue. We'll have more freedoms, both here and on the Net."

Shroud completely turned to face Matthias, his face tinged with shock. "What? Matthias, we must earn our S-Licenses. It's the only way to battle in the real world, and if we're not ONB, we have no rights. What could have possibly led you to such an idea?"

"You're wrong, Shroud."

The Nation Z netbattler stopped speaking. "What?"

"You've been gone too long. Wazuki Orochi has perfected a new method of real world battle--the Dimensional Converter. If one is in balance, you can defy the laws of reality and pull your navi into the real world. It's incredibly taxing, but doesn't require a Dimensional Area." Both of the friends were silent a moment, trying to read each other's expressions. ""I don't know what I'm going to do in the future, but I will not let villains have their way with this world," Matthias said, turning from the window. "If that means I must leave the ONB...then so be it."

Shroud and Matthias stood in the darkened room, lightning flashing behind them. For an instant, something flickered behind Shroud's eyes, and Matthias feared he would lash out at him. The moment passed, and Shroud simply began to chuckle. "I see you gained a backbone since we last spoke. Come on. Let's figure out what to do next with our lives."

-

_The old friendship had been renewed…but something still divided the friends, something that would not become apparent until it was too late. For Shroud had not only killed in Nation Z, he had done so under the influence of a Dark Synchro Chip…developing a dark personality that soon gained control over him, calling itself Shadow Shroud._

_Gathering several rogue navis to his cause, he created the Dark Union, which ruthlessly attacked the Chaos Union, nearly destroying them. However, Matthias and the others fought back, taking the fight to their enemies at Mt. Belenus. Achieving Full Synchro for the first time, Matthias and Galaxyman led the Chaos Union against Shadow Shroud. He was finally deleted, with X's help, and Shroud managed to recover from his possession._

_Still, the Dark Union persisted, with the help of several new additions, including their new leader, Master Shadow. This mysterious navi seemed tied to Black Earth, and had near-godly abilities. In addition, Shade, Shroud's twin and Master Shadow's NetOp, came onto the scene, using his skills to delete Shadow X and defeat the Chaos Union in battle._

_The ongoing fight continued for several months. Shroud received a new navi known as Cloud, but even his abilities were not enough. Eventually, they managed to defeat Master Shadow and his minions, but were forced out of NAXA due to damages caused in the attack. Luckily enough, Matthias was able to hack into a government satellite, finding an uncharted and uninhabited island for the group to use. After collecting their pay over the last months, the group had an office building built, and began moving into their new offices._

_- _

Matthias disembarked from the helicopter, helping a girl out behind him. The lovely Irine Whiteheart had joined them a few weeks ago, apparently having met Shroud in Nation Z when they were children. She was obviously infatuated with the Chaos Union's leader, but Matthias was unsure whether his friend felt the same. He wasn't sure whether a yes or no would be more pleasing.

"Thank you for the helicopter ride, Mr. Matthias." The young woman was older than he was, but still maintained an air of innocence that he found refreshing after the insanity or severity of his contemporaries.

"Not a problem. There's scarcely another way to get to the island." That seemed to amuse her, and she giggled as Shroud burst through the doorway.

"Matthias! Irine! Get downstairs, there's a problem with the computer," he said, a tad exhausted from climbing four flights of stairs. Matthias didn't hesitate, running to the door and jacking Galaxyman into the system. Both raced down steps, Matthias running to the lobby, and Galaxyman descending into the system's core. Reaching the ground, he opened the door to reveal an ironic scene of complete chaos.

A gravitational field had been activated, pulling the Chaos Union members within against the walls. Matthias quickly noted that Link, Brian, and Lica were among those pinned to the wall, and that a large screen at the front of the lobby revealed the system core, in the Cyberworld. Galaxyman was shown entering there, behind Cloud and a figure both had hoped never to see again.

Master Shadow.

"Full Synchro!" Matthias and his navi cried as Shroud and Irine entered behind him, the former too weary from his running to join his navi as well. The combined duo stood beside Cloud and drew his weapon, the Cosmos Blaster.

"It's time for you to die, Master Shadow! And for good this time!" Galaxyman aimed his gun at his adversary and fired while Cloud silently began casting spells at the corrupted navi.

But Master Shadow merely chuckled and raised his arms, a dark shield blocking the attacks. "Fools. Did you think I'd attack you if I didn't have a larger purpose in mind?" A sickening feeling went down Matthias' spine, and some innate instinct caused him to turn away, looking into the eyes of a strangely familiar navi behind him…a navi with a gun pointed at his heart.

"Bang," the assassin said, as he fired.

The bullet struck Galaxyman before he even had the chance to react, a perfect shot from a perfect gun. Slowly, Galaxyman's data began to disperse, and blood began leaking from an empathetic trauma wound over Matthias' heart. Yet Matthias held onto his navi, desperately trying to revive him with the powers of Full Synchro.

"Matthias…I'm so sorry. Let me go, and save yourself." Galaxyman's face floated in Matthias' vision, deeply remorseful for his suffering.

"No, Galaxyman! I can't let you die." Matthias' Synchro was too deep for even conscious effort to shatter, so deep he scarcely noticed Master Shadow leave and the others fall to the ground. Irine and Shroud ran up to him, the young nurse quickly tending to his wound.

"Matthias…you can't save me. But I can save you. Goodbye…" Galaxyman slowly accepted his fate, and Matthias angrily tried to deepen their bond and restore him to full strength. However, his actions had the opposite effect, breaking Full Synchro and returning him to reality with a jolt. His eyes flashed open, pupils dilating, and he slipped into a dreamless slumber where nightmares lurked.

-

_Matthias eventually managed to recover from the ordeal, and even received a new navi with the help of his genius brother, Alex. However, unbeknownst to Matthias, his brother's navi, Nova, was the very one who deleted Galaxyman. Regrettably, Matthias would not discover this until the full truth of his brother's corruption had become known. For now, he was content to continue battling on alongside his new navi, Gizmo._

_The Dark Union was frighteningly calm after this latest attack, giving Matthias time to heal and the others time to rebuild the base. However, when Shroud's twin brother, Shade, made his reappearance, the Union was thrown for a loop. He wasn't there to fight them, quite the opposite. He intended on joining them._

_Matthias vehemently protested this course of action, saying that Shade was Master Shadow's NetOp, and that he couldn't be trusted. Still, Shade informed them that he had been under his navi's control, and Shroud believed him, giving him Matthias' position as second-in-command. Outraged, Matthias left the Union, becoming a Rogue. In an interesting twist, Irine also left, but Matthias didn't learn this until much later._

_Tricked by Shade, Irine was captured and taken to the Dark Union base. Shade sent a message to the Chaos Union, telling them that he was unable to save her and giving the location of their base. Matthias, keeping an eye on the Union, intercepted the message and headed to save Irine on his own, under the pretense of joining Master Shadow._

_While the powerful navi allowed him into the base, he informed Matthias that under no circumstances would he be allowed to join until after the final battle was over and his friends had been destroyed. Shade then entered, escorting an enraged Matthias to a prison cell, where Irine and Shroud's father also resided._

_As the Chaos Union reached the base and began to fight Nova and his enigmatic partner, Prometheus, Matthias managed to jack Gizmo into a Copyroid. Gizmo freed the others, but Matthias reported in to Master Shadow, informing him that they had overpowered him and broken out. Believing him, Master Shadow sent him and Shade to retrieve them before Shroud could find them. Increasingly disliking the situation, Matthias followed Shade, while Gizmo jacked himself into the computer systems._

_- _

Shade raced down the halls, a sword held in his left hand. Matthias reluctantly followed, his wrist daggers currently sheathed. How could it have come this far? He had only entered to save Irine, and now he was fighting alongside a traitor, attempting to kill Shroud. Shade turned a corner, and began to shout at someone Matthias could not yet see.

"Hello, my brother. It seems like it's been forever."

Matthias turned the corner to see that Shade stood in front of an escaping Irine. Shroud stood in front of her, and his navi was beside him, apparently using a Copyroid. Behind them, he could see Steve Hurr appear, one of the newer Chaos Union members, a fellow Rogue.

"Shade…you….CLOUD! KILL HIM NOW!" Shroud's navi nodded and lunged into action, as Shade raised his sword.

The sickening sound of a blade sliding between ribs stopped them all. Shade sunk to the floor as Matthias was revealed behind him, one dagger blood red. "Now I know how you felt, Shroud," he murmured softly, barely daring to meet their eyes. He stepped over Shade's body, hurrying towards the others. "You guys need to hurry and get out of here. Gizmo can make it look like you killed him."

Irine stepped past Shroud, her emerald eyes glistening with tears. "Matthias…aren't you coming back with us?"

Matthias sadly shook his head. "I'm truly sorry…but I can't return yet. We need someone on the inside, so that when we fight again, we can truly win. But if you and the others don't escape, there is no hope, not for any of us."

"You already have no hope."

Matthias wheeled around, watching helplessly as Shade got to his feet. "What? But…how?"

Shade simply held up his PET, a dark red Synchro Chip inserted. "This is how. A Jenova Synchro Chip. Your friend Shroud should know what that is; he used it to kill our parents." With that parting shot, Shade fully transformed, tarnished gold armor encasing his body. He began pummeling Shroud and Matthias, leaving them little chance to defend themselves.

It seemed there would be no end to the melee, but all it truly took was a single cry of "Stop!"

Shade froze, one fist ready to bash Shroud's head in, while Matthias lay against the wall, slipping in and out of consciousness. "Father?" Dr. Taruka nodded, having been out of sight when Shade entered the hallway.

"He lied to you, my son. I still live." The doctor pulled a battlechip gate from his pocket and slotted in several recovery chips, healing Shroud and Matthias. "But we shall not live much longer unless you tell us who this Master Shadow truly is."

Shade swallowed, crossing out of his armor. "Forgive me, father, for what I have unleashed." As he spoke, resounding laughter could be heard throughout the base as it was converted into data, leaving them standing in a barren wasteland. All around were strewn the other Chaos Union members, who had attacked Master Shadow directly in the hopes to buy Shroud time.

Matthias and the others raced over to them, checking for pulses. "Ray's fine!" he cried, referring to a headstrong yet green newbie who had apparently forced Shroud to take him along. The others nodded as well, having assured the others were breathing as well. Dr. Taruka began slotting in more recovery chips, first reviving his charge, another new member called Chris, before moving on to the others as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the others could only look on as their adversary, floating above them, gathered energy.

"Fools! You have no knowledge of my true power! For my true name is Atos, most powerful navi in the world!" Shroud and his father paled; this mighty navi had single-handedly made Nation Z the most powerful nation in existence, before his corruption and supposed deletion. Matthias, however, hadn't heard such tales, and turned to Shroud.

"I don't know about you, but I think we can win this thing." Shroud stared at him, but Irine managed to giggle.

"Shroud, you aren't going to let something like this stop you, right?" She smiled at him, and Shroud smiled back.

"All right, everyone. Get your navis ready," he shouted. "It's time to end this!"

-

_And so, as in all good stories, the Chaos Union was victorious. Atos was broken into several fragments of data, called Chronus Shards, which were scattered throughout the net. According to Dr. Taruka, Cloud was the only one who could find these shards, so he would have to search for them so that the world could forever remain safe from the menace of Atos._

_While Shroud was disheartened to hear that his navi would be forced to traverse the net alone, he was soon greeted by a navi named Juno, who claimed to be a purified version of Atos. This new navi was quite powerful, and Shroud gladly accepted his offer to become his netnavi._

_With the last remnants of Shroud's haunted past dismissed, the Chaos Union were now 'rebels without a cause'. However, after much convincing on the ONBA's side, Shroud managed to get them funding as a special task force for the next few years. It seemed Shroud, Matthias, and all the others had truly found their lives' calling._

_- _

"Coming to bed, dear?"

Matthias looked up to see his wife of three years, Alysse, descending the steps towards him. It had been nearly seven years since the beginning of the Chaos Union now, and their reign had finally ended. Matthias looked back down at his writings; a journal entitled "Chaos Chronicles".

"Yes, Alysse." Matthias closed the book, concealing his memories from himself. He then picked up the book and slid it into a concealed portion of the wall, where it seamlessly hid itself. He then turned to his wife. Alysse was a lovely woman, an herbalist with an almost ethereal beauty. He ignored the ever-present thoughts that he had only chosen her because her beauty made him forget his unrequited love for Irine, as he always did, and kissed her passionately before looking over at their son, Luke, sleeping in his crib.

"Do you think that he'll ever be a hero like you were?" she asked him, a playful tone creeping into her voice as she snuggled up against him.

"I hope not," he replied solemnly as memory reminded him of the consequences of heroism.


	2. Born Again

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its characters. Capcom does. All other characters are the intellectual property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note: **The action finally begins. Hold on tight if you don't understand something right away, it'll all be explained. Also, make sure that you tell other people about this fanfiction. I already know several of the people who will be reading it, but I want to hear from the others, the unknown factor. So tell your friends, and read on!

In addition, every chapter will now have a flashback from the Chaos Union's past. Occasionally, it will be obvious as to why it's there, other times not. And those of you who partook in the making of their past, please don't be offended when I paraphrase for my own purposes, as I'm sure I will. After all, it's my story. The rest of you should have no problems with my flashbacking. Enjoy!

-

Shroud still couldn't believe his eyes as he entered the large banquet hall. The Chaos Union had finally managed to achieve one of his long-time goals: to become an elite ONB team. Yet not even he had imagined the manner in which it could come true.

After appealing to Mr. Famous and the rest of the Net Savior team, Shroud had finally impressed them to the point where they decided to affiliate themselves with the Chaos Union. But unlike prior assimilations of similar groups in years past, the Chaos Union was still a separate entity, with Shroud still leader and all his members permitted to join without question. What's more, they were considered an elite strike force, and on par with all but Net Saviors in terms of national intelligence. In fact, he and Matthias had already been on a brief reconnaissance mission in Sharo a week before, but few knew of that. For all intents and appearances, tonight would be amongst the few events the Chaos Union would be politically visible in for years to come.

He turned his head to the right and smiled, looking over at his date for the evening, Irine Whiteheart. She was wearing a glistening strapless dress of deep azure, and she flashed him a pearly smile as well, before greeting someone off to her right. Shroud stood a moment, watching her move, and fingered in his pocket the small box he planned on giving to her this evening. It was her birthday, and Shroud knew she truly wanted to be alone with him, but that was not to be. He hoped the gold ring within was present enough for her this year.

Moving to the table reserved for them this evening, Shroud sat down and greeted the Chaos Union members who had been able to make it this evening. Matthias had come alone, as had a majority of the other eight members seated there this evening. Brian was sitting beside a young woman named Aelita, and it seemed their on-again, off-again relationship was on again. Naturally, this meant the ever-infatuated Lica was absent. Link and Pavo had both elected not to attend, having no interest in a 'stuffy tuxedo party', but had made Shroud promise to take their infamous "Queso Caliente" to the affair. None of the CU members planned on eating any of it.

Raymond was sitting to Shroud's right, and asked the question everyone appeared to know the answer to. "When are you asking Irine?"

"After the dinner," he responded coolly, making sure to keep his voice down. "While they're serving dessert, I'll offer to escort her onto the roof so we can be alone, and then I'll ask her." J.G. nodded his approval, as did most of the others, but Matthias looked a bit concerned.

"Are you sure that you and Irine should marry right now? The two of you are barely 18, and it's not like any of us are financially secure."

"We will be by the time of the wedding. You saw the paycheck they gave us after the last mission. Hell, it paid for the ring, and that wasn't cheap."

"What wasn't cheap, dear?" Irine came up behind Shroud and took a seat beside him, blissfully ignorant of the conversation. Shroud couldn't find a decent answer, looking to his comrades for help. SH came to his rescue.

"My latest non-lethal weapon. Turns out they cost more than the lethal ones." Shroud silently mouthed a thank you towards him as soon as Irine looked away, and Steve simply shrugged. "You owe me," he mouthed as Mr. Famous took the stage.

"I have the pleasure of introducing several new members of our staff to you this fine evening. Now, don't mistake them for your children, although some are younger than them, and please meet the Chaos Union!" A spotlight shown down upon them, and all but Golex and Shroud briefly shaded their eyes. "Now, if you could, please come to the stage to recieve your official ONB operative badges of honor."

The team stood, Chris leading the way to stand at the end of the line. Shroud headed the group as always, with Matthias standing beside him. "This is the beginning of the rest of our lives, Shroud," he said softly as Famous continued speaking.

"Let's make them long and good, my friend." At Famous' request, Shroud stepped forward, claiming his badge. He looked at it a moment, tracing a thumb across the words embossed upon it: Chaos Alpha.

Heart swelling with pride, he looked over to Irine and smiled before raising the badge high into the air, proclaiming the battle-stained motto of the team, "_Contextus in chaos!_" As the resounding applause rang out through the hall, Shroud felt like he couldn't be any happier.

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

**_Chapter 1: _**_Renascit_

_- _

More than twenty years have passed since the founding of the Chaos Union. It has long since been broken, through time and hardship. With the collapse of the Chaos Union, chaos truly began to reign. With their task force dispersed, the ONBA was forced to establish martial law, now ruling Electopia. Electopia subsequently brought down Nation Z, leaving it a ruined waste.

Still more nations have rose and fell in the time since aside from Nation Z. Electopia and Netopia still reign as global superpowers, and the politically converse Sharo has enveloped the nation of Kingland, making it a Sharoan province. In response, the neighboring countries of Yumland and Netfrica have combined their lands, becoming the Free States of Yumfrica. In addition, the island nation of Creamland has developed a policy of isolationism, maintaining its own affairs and closing its marine borders. And finally, the country of Neo Arcadia rounds out these seven major nations, a utopian paradise…yet hated more than even Nation Z in its time. And for only one reason, a reason that condemned both it and the Chaos Union: it is a nation for independent navis, ruled by the mighty Lord X.

This island nation that lurks between Electopia and Netopia is theoretically a perfect country. Yet it has become a dwelling-place for society's cast-offs and outcasts, including their criminals. Now, Neo Arcadia faces a majority of the same problems as other countries, save for the fact that most other countries aren't constantly being watched for the slightest hint of insurgence by nearly every other nation on the planet. Yet this country could still become a national power if it chose to, if only because it is the only country in the world to have legalized the use of copyroids outside of the military.

Regardless of your nation, it seems the world is now a much more dangerous place than it was 20 years ago. Yet the future will grow much, much darker for these 7 sovereigns, and the ever-present threat of the Darkloids hangs over all...

-

-- Friday, March 28, 6: 39 AM, Neo Arcadia --

-

Shroud Taruka walked the streets of his city as the sun began to rise. He had been summoned to an audience with X himself, an honor that he had not had in more than a year. Still, he really wasn't looking forward to the meeting. X had given him several government duties as of late, including the drafting of a treaty between Neo Arcadia and Sharo that might protect them for years. Still, his wife had recently had another child, a baby boy he'd named Seitoka, and he'd spent much of his time at home the last few months.

As he ascended the steps to the Core Building, Shroud fervently wished that he were 17 again. Granted, 38 wasn't too old, but a bit of stiffness had begun to build up in his joints, revenge for the escapades he'd put them through while a member of the Chaos Union. Still, he'd had a fulfilling life, despite the hardships of the last decade or so. Even now, it was hard to imagine the life he had once led, before he'd learned of this city. It was Neo Arcadia that had managed to give him and his family back any semblance of joy.

As Shroud entered the building, a netnavi greeted him. "Good day, Mr. Taruka. The latest draft of the treaty has arrived. Would you like a copy now?" Strangely enough, he wore a pair of slacks and a black sweater, but the green hair and electronic flickers through his irises gave him away.

Neo Arcadia never ceased to amaze him. A world where humans and copyroids could coexist seemed impossible, but X had found a way to make it so. Granted, several of those considered criminals in other countries fled here to seek amnesty, himself among them, but as a whole, the city was a boon to the world. If only the world could open its eyes enough to see it.

"No thanks, Leite. Send it up to my offices, and I'll look at it later." The green-haired navi nodded and scurried off, most likely to plug himself into a terminal and take the documents up to his office's server. Juno was already up there, having gone this morning after Shroud left the house, and should be able to occupy the navi until he was through speaking with Shroud.

Entering the elevator alone, he wondered why he had been summoned in the first place. X was perfectly capable of sending an email regarding his commands, or arriving within an email himself, although that would be beneath him. But whatever it was, it was surely important. It could be nothing else in a land wracked with such peril. The elevator opened, and Shroud stepped forward, knocking upon X's door.

"Enter."

Shroud hastily knelt as the doors opened themselves. At his desk sat X himself, in copyroid form. He had chosen not to wear his armor today, and wore a simple blue garment and some brown pants. X was never anyone for formal wear, but what navi would be? The red gem that was a symbol of his office still shone on his forehead, as if protesting the efforts against his nation. It was a testament to his skill in diplomacy and politics that the nation had survived so long.

"Hello, Lord X. You wished to see me?" The ruler nodded, indicating a chair in front of his desk with a wave of his hand.

"Yes. Please be seated." Shroud did as he was asked, folding his hands in his lap. "Now Shroud, before I get to the heart of why I have asked you to arrive here, how comes the treaty with Sharo?"

Shroud winced inwardly, but managed to answer. "I haven't worked on it much lately. I've been spending time at home with my wife and children."

To his surprise, X didn't seem angry with him, and he nodded in approval. "Of course. Family is the most important thing. I've been trying to spend more time with my 'children', but it becomes difficult while you're running a country."

Shroud could imagine. X had copied his data four times, modifying it enough to create four separate beings, whom he called his children; Harpuia, Fefnir, Phantom, and Leviathan. The four of them helped X maintain the city and its surroundings, and Shroud knew from his conversations with Harpuia that it took up a great deal of their time; he hadn't spoken directly to any of his siblings in weeks.

"Now, to the matter at hand. There is a serious threat to national security afoot, due to the meddling of the Rebellion. I'm assembling a team to confront them and discover their plans in time to quell any serious attacks. You will be leading them."

Shroud was startled by this turn of events. "But…your dialogues with your faculty have passed the Rebellion off as nothing more than a momentary irritation! And I haven't led a team into any sort of battle since the Chaos Union, and you know how that ended up."

X solemnly looked at Shroud as he spoke, and followed up on his accusation with an answer. "Yes, I did lie to a majority of my staff about the seriousness of this Rebellion. But they have become much more of a threat recently, due to my discovery of their leaders. Drs. Gate, Doppler, Weil, Kain, and Lumina, and their navis."

Shroud leapt to his feet in outrage. "What! They helped build Neo Arcadia, and now they want to destroy it? What madness is this?"

"I have no idea why these five would want to destroy the city. But the fact remains that they do. Now, wouldn't you like to know who you'll be working with?"

Quelled by this unknown bit of information, Shroud sat down in his chair again, tentatively awaiting his leader's response. X began to smile as he read off the list, and Shroud's smile soon matched his own. "Oh, yes. We might have a chance now."

-

-- 7:03 AM, 8498 Floppi Place, Electown, Electopia --

-

"Luke, get out of bed and make your brother breakfast!" Matthias shouted at his firstborn son as he walked through the halls of his home. He tapped on his daughter's door and told her to get up as well, before descending down to the first floor. As a pot of coffee percolated next to the microwave, he sat down at their table, an extension of the kitchen counter with tall chairs to make up for its height.

The entire house was filled to the brim with electronics, not only spare parts, but actual working gadgets as well. The counters, a flecked black marble, were like the proverbial tip of the iceberg; flicking the proper switch at the edge would allow them to become a computer monitor, with portable keyboards within slots below. Turning his computer on, Matthias checked up on his children. He never would use cameras (too primitive to begin with), but an overview of what doors had been opened was enough to tell him that Luke had woken his brother, and then returned to his room, and that Marie was in the bathroom, most likely showering.

Moments later, the coffee zipped around the counter, and Matthias stopped it with his hand while his sons descended the steps. Little Sam was only five years old, and was a shy, withdrawn child. Still, he giggled as he raced down the last few steps and clung onto his father's leg.

"Mornin', Daddy!" Matthias smiled as he bent to pick the boy up, setting him atop the table. He reminded him of Alysse, as always. Not a day went by that he didn't miss his beloved wife. Ironic that she was an herbalist whose rare spices had helped save the lives of others, yet they couldn't save her. Ironic enough to sour sugar.

"Good morning, Sam. You too, Luke." His other son shrugged and opened the refrigerator, grabbing a carton of orange juice and taking a sip from it. Matthias frowned at him, but Luke took little notice and drank from the carton again before finally grabbing a glass and pouring the juice into it. The 16-year old had an impudent streak the likes of which Matthias had never seen in their family, save for his brother, of course. Thank heaven he wasn't nearly as devious.

"What are your plans for today, father?" Luke shoved a pair of bread slices in the toaster and sat across from Sam and his dad. His blue eyes met Matthias', and a momentary red line crossed the iris, the remnant of one of Matthias' inventions. When the boy was about seven years old, he was found to have extremely degenerative vision, meaning that his vision would rapidly grow weaker and weaker over a year or two until he was blind. Quickly throwing something together, Matthias managed to create a laser that had reversed the problem, but left faint red scars upon the iris and cornea that occasionally rose to the surface.

"Not much, Luke. I'll be in the store all day if you kids need me." Luke nodded and began to drink his orange juice. Matthias then returned to his computer, opening his email. An image of Gizmo sorting through mail appeared, the navi looking a bit sleepy.

"Anything interesting today, Gizmo?" His navi shook his head, setting the last of the mail on a stack. Gizmo hadn't changed much since the Chaos Union had disbanded. His blue armor and green shoulder plates were hanging on a rack behind him, seeing as how they no longer got much use, so his traditional wear was nothing more than his maroon bodysuit, red scarf, and occasionally his blue crested helmet.

"Not a thing, Matthias. As usual, you've got orders there, bills here, and spam is already deleted." Gizmo indicated each pile in turn, with a self-assured nod for each one.

"All right, well you can take care of the orders; I'll pay off these bills." So they went to work, Gizmo disturbed only by spam, and Matthias only disturbed by Sam.

Finally, they finished their work, approximately at the same time. Luke had already retreated to his room, Marie had been in and out about six times, and Matthias had finally managed to get Sam to watch television in the other room. "Well, that's everything, Gizmo." He checked his watch, noting that he needed to open the store in a half-hour or so. "Time to go to work."

Gizmo nodded and was about to transfer into his operator's PET when another email came through. "Hang on a sec, let me read this…" His voice trailed off, causing Matthias to glance down at the screen.

"What is it? It can't be that bad." Matthias drank the last of his coffee and put his cup in the sink; something for Luke to do later. "Come on, who's it from?"

"Matthias…it's from Shroud!"

"What?" Matthias rushed over to the screen, trying to read the infinitely small writing on the digital envelope. "Are you sure?"

Gizmo nodded, fully opening the email. "I don't recognize the address, but it's him alright. Hurry, read it." Matthias did as he was told, skimming through the contents as they appeared on the screen.

"…We need to get to Neo Arcadia, Gizmo." His navi nodded, folding the email up and beaming himself into Matthias' PET as he headed upstairs. He stopped at Luke's door and knocked quickly, his son opening the door after a few moments.

"What's up, Dad? Aren't you leaving for work?"

"Luke, I need you to run the store today. Grab your things and let's head across the street." With no other words of explanation, Matthias hurried back down the steps, grabbing a coat, briefcase, and his PET.

Luke rolled his eyes and turned back into the room, slipping shoes on quickly. "This had better be good," he muttered to his netnavi before running out after his father.

Terretronics was just a block down from their home, on the border between the residential and commercial districts. When Luke exited the house, Matthias was already halfway down the block, and he had to run to catch up. "Dad, what's the deal? You don't have any meetings today, otherwise you'd have told me before now."

"Something has come up. I need to take the jet overseas." Matthias palmed the security scanner at the store entrance and stepped inside, setting his briefcase on one of the checkout counters before continuing deeper into the store. "All the employees still listen to you, right?"

"Yeah, they're mostly my age, but Dad, overseas?" Luke hurried along behind his father like a lost puppy, albeit a confused one. "What could you possibly have to do overseas where there's less than a day's notice?"

Matthias stopped in the back, typing a security code into a partially concealed console. "I wish I knew." A door opened, revealing a small elevator, able to hold about two or three people. Matthias got in, his son following.

"Where are you going anyways? You wouldn't need the jet for a conference; they'd just send you a plane."

Matthias sighed and ran his hands through his hair, an old habit that had never managed to die out. "Luke, I don't know much more than you right now, all right? Now I'll tell you all about it when I get home." The doors opened, and Matthias stepped through, walking straight for the jet.

One of the few remnants of the Chaos Union Matthias used on any frequent basis, the jet was built for about half a dozen, although about nine could (and did) fit in it. Among the fastest in the world, the government believed it destroyed after the disbanding of the Union. Of course, the fact that Terretronics helped build several of their state-of-the-art machines and weaponry made them a little 'forgetful' as well when their scanners detected it. Still, he'd need to make sure he cloaked it this time; they couldn't know where he was going.

The jet opened its door, a walkway extending from the edge of the entrance. "Now, make sure that Marie is taking care of Sam while you're at work, and tell her that if he gets out of hand to bring him over so you and the staff can help, all right. And if I'm not back by dinner, throw a pizza in or something; no takeout. And no friends over. If you want to go somewhere, that's fine, but either you or Marie needs to be at home with Sam, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, standard procedure. But why can't you tell me where you're going?" Matthias stopped halfway up the walkway and turned back towards his son.

"Because they won't let me." With that, he continued into the jet, taking the pilot's seat. Luke waved a moment, and then hurried down into the store, so that his ears weren't harmed when the jet took off, despite the sonic dampeners installed. The roof of the building peeled back, revealing the open expanse of the sky above. Matthias cracked his knuckles and plugged his PET into the system before taking hold of the controls.

"Showtime." The engines ignited, taking Matthias into the air and one step closer to death.

-

-- 10: 36 AM, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

-

Shroud finished off his lunch with one last bite, consuming the small sandwich that had been his first meal since six in the morning. He then took a large swallow of water before gathering his garbage and hurriedly tossing it into the trash.

"Shroud, relax. Most of the team should be arriving soon; you don't need to lose your cool over something as mundane as a reunion." Juno, ever the serious one, had taken on holographic form, extending about four inches above his PET. "Everyone who needed a ride is on their way, and everyone else should be here within an hour or so."

"I know, Juno, but I just get this…feeling. Like something is wrong." His navi rolled his eyes, and Shroud grabbed his PET before standing up. He exited the half-empty lunchroom and entered the atrium, intending to head up to his offices and get some work done on that treaty.

"Shroud?"

He turned, looking to see who was speaking. A man stood behind him, familiar in some way. Something about his hair, maybe his eye color, or the navi on his shoulder…"Matthias?" Shroud walked up to his old friend with some hesitation. "That you?"

Matthias nodded, now smiling. "I see you've gotten into high places again, old friend. Might I discover why I've been so urgently called to an enemy state?" His words were cheerful, but the slight barb behind them still lurked. Matthias and Shroud had a small falling out as the Chaos Union disbanded. While Matthias was through, Shroud still wanted to keep the group going in secret. They had never really managed to get past it, especially since this was the first time they had seen each other in years.

"Matthias…I need your help. Lord X needs your help." Shroud nearly broke his promise to X and told Matthias everything, but luckily, someone else entered the building. Brian hadn't changed a bit since their days in the Chaos Union, except perhaps age was beginning to slow him down.

"Hello," he said simply. Shroud was almost surprised; out of all the members on X's list, Brian had been the least likely to come. Shroud wasn't even sure why he had come. His reasons for leaving the Union had never been revealed, not to anyone, but he had only escaped their disbanding by a month or two.

Shroud was a bit puzzled by his appearance alone. He had told everyone that if they needed transportation, they should reply with their location. Matthias and Brian were the only two here who hadn't replied. Now, Matthias probably still had his old jet, but how Brian could have gotten here so quickly was another question, one he'd never get to ask.

Matthias opened his mouth to ask Brian how he'd been, but was interrupted by the sound of several people falling through a revolving door. Turning, he saw that the group transport had apparently arrived, with Link, Pavo, and Raymond sprawled across the floor, the revolving door currently squishing Link. The trio rolled their eyes and helped the others up. "Never grew up, did you guys?"

Raymond got to his feet and seemed to take offense for a second before laughing. "Yeah, I suppose. But at least I didn't pour nitro into the boat's engine." Among the least experienced of the Union, Raymond Merlo hadn't changed much. A bit taller, the stubble of a beard apparent, but not much else had changed.

"Well it got us here faster, didn't it?" Link's voice had lost its childish squeak, but the childish tone was still there. Youngest of the Union, he would be just past thirty, but still didn't seem to have grown up. "Besides, it was better than liquid cheese. By the way, do you still have some of that?"

Pavo nodded, the Mexican holding a large bag that was miraculously unharmed by his fall through the door. Pavo had actually been one of the few Chaos Union members Matthias had heard anything about. While rumors had been going around that a hero had come to the secluded valley of Hyrule, a hero who only could be Link, Pavo had actually made news by making the third-world country of Mexico internet compatible, and managed to run the country for a few years before recently being voted out of office.

Shroud spoke up before Link and Pavo could begin their cheese frenzy. "All right, come on. Now that everyone's here, let's head up to speak with X." He led the way back to the elevator, pushing the button for the top floor once they were all inside.

Moments later, the five visiting ex-Chaos Union members were seated in X's office, their former leader standing beside X. The leader of Neo Arcadia had donned his ceremonial armor for the occasion, a mix of blue and gold. "Let me begin by thanking you all for coming. Our country is in dire peril, and you are the only ones I believe I can trust."

X gave Shroud some sort of signal with his eyes, and he stepped forward, beginning to speak. "The last time we all saw each other was in this very building, after our last mission. We had been assigned to guard Dr. Yuichirou Hikari as he presented his idea for a world where netnavis and humans could mingle freely, and his new navi design known only as Project X. He was worried that terrorists might target him to destroy his dream in one fell swoop. Sadly, he was right."

"As you all know, I was kidnapped earlier in the day by the terrorists and replaced with a copyroid. Since my part in the mission was mostly advisory, you never realized I wasn't with you until it was too late. I managed to escape, but as I ran inside the auditorium, I could only watch in horror as the copyroid drew a gun and killed Dr. Hikari."

"In the following chaos, I was able to make my way to the stage and reveal to you the treachery of the terrorists. But the damage was done. X managed to hide in this building's server until the confusion was over, ironically manifesting himself in the same copyroid that killed his creator. As for us, we fled to the roof, where I said my goodbyes to you for what you may have thought was the last time. Then, I cross-fused with Juno and left, allowing you to escape."

"I know I stayed in correspondence with you for several months while you tried to clear my name, but it was futile. Through your connections in the ONB, some of you were able to keep them from destroying the base per my instructions, despite the disbanding of the Union. That was my home for the next two years. Myself, Irine, and Seija, who was less than a year old when we disbanded. After the base was destroyed, the family and I were forced to live on the streets, my rudimentary skill in ninjitsu the only thing getting us the food to survive."

"We spent seven years that way. Moving from place to place, trying to survive. It was a harsh upbringing for my daughter. I ended up selling every battlechip I owned except my VariableSword." He fished through his pocket a moment before pulling out a battle-scarred chip, having seen more than two decades of fighting and suffering.

"But then I managed to find him," X interjected before Shroud became lost in nostalgia. "Ever since I'd managed to create a sovereign nation out of the ruined complex, one of my top priorities was finding the one who'd been so wronged by my dream. When I found Shroud, he and his family were living in Nation Z, hiding in the homes of others. I offered him a position and a home in Neo Arcadia. He gladly accepted."

Shroud then continued with the tale. "Ever since then, Irine and I have made our home here. I cannot openly leave, as I'm wanted for the murder of Dr. Hikari, but life is still nice here, in a land where netnavis and humans can interact peacefully. We've had two more children since then, Saishi, who's five, and Seitoka, who was born just a few months ago."

Matthias was stricken by Shroud's tale. The stubborn fool could have come to him for help! Still, what's done was done. "But why do you need us now? Surely you didn't call us all the way here to catch up on old times?"

Shroud shook his head. "We have a crisis here. A Rebellion is brewing, led by some of Neo Arcadia's most prominent scientists, the first to help X build his dream. And we don't have the ability to stop it without your help."

Shroud sighed, knowing this last bit wouldn't go over well. "Guys…the Chaos Union needs to go on one more mission."


	3. Secrets Revealed

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Megaman Battle Network or any of its characters. Capcom does. All other characters and ideas are the personal property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Sorry this is coming out a day late, but I had a busy week and didn't get around to editing this until a few days ago. In other news, tell your friends about this novel. As to your numerous questions about when the children of the Chaos Union will make their appearance, you'll meet three of them in this chapter, and several more in the next few. I will most likely introduce them sooner than you expect, and keep the adults more active within the novel as well. That said, let's begin!

_The three boys entered the hotel room, throwing their stuff upon the futons within. "It's a shame that we haven't any place better to hold these meetings in," Matthias said, plugging his PET into the wall and loading a web browser screen on the television. His netnavi moved in as well, setting aside a portion of the rather warm server for the navi's rooms._

_"I've loaded my hiberation program in over near these digital springs. Feel free to join me." The normally battle-ready Galaxyman was wearing only his bodysuit, and the blue-black cloak of shadows that clung to his body. He removed the cloak as he spoke, tossing it over onto the hibernation program Matthias had recently bought, which took the form of a bed, naturally._

_"I'm game." Crusaderman activated his wireless connection and beamed over from his PET on the bed, their fellow navi Shadow X following. The former navi had left his bulky armor behind, arriving with only his green bodysuit and his supposedly-legendary mace, while SX was wearing clothing that bordered on human, a black tunic and loose blue pants with dark slippers._

_With their navis able to take care of themselves, Matthias, Link, and Shroud sat around the low table, crossing their legs and trying to adjust to the stiff pillows. "Now, I call this session of the newly named Chaos Union to order," Shroud said._

_"Pecans and blueberries!" Link shouted, as he had at the beginning of every meeting._

_"Link, for the last time," Matthias sighed. "we're not ordering pizza. And I must say, your choices of toppings are a tiny bit sickening."_

_"All right, come on, you two. How is our recruitment going? You two get any members to join?" Shroud's companions looked at each other a moment, and then shook their heads._

_"Sorry, Shroud," Matthias said. "But Den Academy is supposed to be a prep school, and netbattling isn't a priority. Most of my classmates don't even have more than a generic netnavi."_

_"And I don't have enough friends in Kotobuki Middle School that are even interested."_

_Shroud sighed. "That's all right. I think that my cousin might be coming soon, to see the continent. I'll see if I can get her to join then. In the meantime, let's just do what we need to."_

_"What's that?" Link asked._

_Shroud smiled. "Save the world, of course."_

_-_

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 2: **Mysteri Acclatus_

_- _

-- 11: 07 AM, X's Office, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias could honestly say he was stunned. Truth to be told, he'd suspected something of the sort the moment he'd seen Brian enter the building. Yet he now realized he hadn't really thought Shroud would go through with it. Did he really think that his answer would be any different than it had been last time?

Yet both Pavo and Link were eagerly smiling, and Raymond looked disappointed, but for the wrong reason, he feared. Brian was the least interested looking of all of them, but even he had an even face, one Matthias couldn't accurately read. But X began to speak again, and Matthias felt compelled to listen for some reason, and returned his attention to the copyroid.

"The mission is truly nothing too dangerous. But the ONB will not help us, and I cannot risk throwing my people into a panic. We have discovered their base, in the Twilight Desert. I'll have a guide accompany you so you won't lose your way. You don't need to fight them, just find out their plans. Please. My country is in dire need."

Matthias tried to find it in himself to refuse, but he wasn't able to. "All right. I'm in, X." Link and Pavo chimed in moments after Matthias with similar agreements. Brian gave a curt nod after much deliberation, but Raymond spoke up, dismay within his voice.

"Sadly, I won't be able to attend. I have a job interview. But…I could send my nephew. He is easily as talented as I was when I joined the Union." Matthias gave Shroud a sideways glance at that. Raymond had been talented, true, but inexperienced upon his joining. He had learned, surely enough, but Matthias wouldn't have sent Raymond on a mission such as this. From the return glance Shroud gave, he wouldn't either.

But X must have been more desperate than he said, for he nodded. "Send him then. We shall need all the help we can get. That goes for the rest of you as well. Your families, or other Chaos Union members unable to arrive at this meeting, may come along, as long as you or Shroud can vouch for them. Meet at the border outpost to the Twilight Desert by four o'clock tomorrow evening; the sun should be descending by then." With that, X dismissed them, Shroud leading them into the hallway.

"That's that," he said as they reentered the elevator. "If any of you would like, you can stay at my home in Neo Arcadia. I need to finish some things at work here first, but I'll be done at about 5:30. The address is 1580 Iota Complex, in the Housing District. You should be able to find it; the district is well mapped. If not, I'll see you tomorrow." The others nodded, and when the doors opened, Shroud headed for his office, leaving the other five alone.

Brian and Raymond both left right away, Brian near-silently, Raymond with a mutter of 'needing to train Alistor'. Matthias then looked at the others. "And where are you going to? Back home?" Both shook their heads.

"I think I'll stop in at Shroud's once he gets off work," Link said, Pavo nodding in agreement. "Until then, I'm just going to stay here and enjoy the culture. Maybe I'll rent out a copyroid for Legendman."

"Is that your new navi?" Matthias asked as the three of them walked outside, migrating towards a table set out for a nearby café. As Link nodded, Matthias continued his blithe questioning. "So what happened to Soulman?"

"He was deleted back in Hyrule. Of course, it was a small price to pay to save the realm and marry my princess, Zelda. His basic personality is still existent though, so Legendman's more of an upgrade that just looks different." Link looked at his watch as he spoke, and hurriedly got up as he realized what time it was. "Sorry to talk and run, but I told Zelda I'd meet her and the kids at 11:30 after they got settled in at the hotel. Will you be coming to Shroud's, Matthias?"

Matthias shook his head. "Sorry. I need to get home to be with my children." He considered mentioning that Alysse had died, but it didn't seem to matter. No need to mar the occasion. Link waved to the others and ran off, still agile at only thirty-one. "It's funny, isn't it? When you're kids, five years age difference is a lot, but when you're older now, that difference never goes away like they say it does."

"It just changes a bit," Pavo finished. "I think Link and I had it lucky. When the Chaos Union was disbanded, he and I were still teenagers. Heck, I think Link had to go to school for a year or two. But you, Brian, Raymond…you had to jump right back into life."

"And let me tell you, it wasn't easy," Matthias replied. "I still don't know what happened to Brian, and from the brief correspondence I had with Raymond, he was feebly trying to make it in the ONB, even though we were looked upon with disdain for Shroud's alleged murder. I never really heard much from anyone else, not after the base was destroyed and we lost hope of acquitting Shroud."

"And what about you? Weren't you engaged to someone, Anna or Allison or…" Pavo trailed off at the look on Matthias' face, grief mixed with anger.

"Alysse. We had three children, two boys and a girl. She…she died a few years ago." Pavo looked truly stricken and opened his mouth to apologize, but Matthias forestalled him with a hand. "No, there was nothing you could have done." He got up, wryly smiling at Pavo's puzzlement. "I had to have picked up a few of those mind-reading tricks from Shroud over the years, didn't I? I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow." Pavo stood as well, taking Matthias' hand for a handshake. 'I'll see you then." Matthias nodded in assent before leaving the plaza and leaving Pavo alone, wondering why life could be so cruel and joyous at the same time.

-- 2: 21 PM, Terretronics, Electown, Electopia --

"If I have to help another old woman find a USB cable, I think I'm going to scream," Luke said as he passed into the employee's lounge. Technically, since he was running the store for the day, he was supposed to be out on the floor the entire time, but he knew nearly everyone on staff well enough to trust them to their own devices. Of the twelve people currently working this shift, eight were his age or so, the ninth was a single mother who only worked Fridays, the tenth and eleventh were two dating seniors who largely ignored them, and the twelve was himself, of course.

Sitting in a chair across from the door, Luke's best friend John tried not to laugh. "Careful, boss, or you'll be a bad influence on us employees." Luke rolled his eyes and resisted a temptation to chuck what was left of the pizza they had ordered at him.

"You know, I'm almost half tempted to make you go back out there and help me fend off the invasion of elderly women that seems to be plaguing both our store and our great nation of Electopia." The jape was only half in jest. "Besides, your fifteen minute break was over fifteen minutes ago, and the seniors have vanished again, as usual."

"And we wouldn't want to find out what they're doing, would we?" For that wonderful mental image, John got a slice of pepperoni to the face, one he promptly consumed as he followed Luke out the door. "But seriously, can't they at least wait until their shift is over at 2:30?"

"Apparently not," Luke replied, stopping to adjust a display case for one of his father's many unique gadgets. "Allie," he said, snagging the sleeve of a passing employee. "We need to restock the memory discs on the left wall. They're in the storage hall, third door on the right."

"Cover your eyes!" John called after her, prompting both an 'ew' from Allie and an elbow from Luke. "What? I think she likes you, you know."

"Yeah, right. And my netnavi can do ballet."

"Really?" Luke rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to elbow John in front of all these customers.

"No, I'm serious," his friend continued. "I mean, she's still dating that Bruce guy, but it's not going to last much longer. He can't handle commitment, he just wants--"

"I know what he wants," Luke said, slipping behind the customer service desk with John. "But I'm really not that interested in her. I mean, it'd be nice to have a girlfriend, but I already know that it'd never work out between us."

John only shrugged. "Whatever. Fair game for me then." Luke laughed at that, but stopped as a girl walked into the store.

She wore a light blue dress that seemed a bit too cool for only spring, but it made ones' eyes instantly notice hers, one an oceanic azure, the other an emerald green. Her hair was jet black, save several white strands from her forehead, which gave her an appearance of agelessness. Luke couldn't tell whether the strands were natural or dyed, although he couldn't imagine anyone who would have white hairs as a teenager.

John kicked him in the ankle as the girl began looking around inquisitively. "Quit drooling," he whispered in his ear, prompting another elbow to the gut, which he accurately blocked. "I mean it. I mean, she's pretty good looking from every angle, although I wish she was closer and I was taller…"

Luke briefly flushed and glared at John before looking back at the girl, who was walking up to the counter. He was a bit taller than John…Luke pulled his eyes back to the girl's face before she could notice.

"Hello. Might you have the latest PET in stock?"

"Certainly. Let me show you to them." Luke stepped out from behind the desk, leading the girl to a glass display case full of PET models. "Here are the latest models. The one over here is the official one, put out by Scitown. It's about the size of seven credit cards on top of each other, but you can't slot in chips without an adapter, sold separately." Luke could see the disdain in the girl's face, so he moved on to the next model.

"In contrast, this one here is called the PET Watch, and it's custom made, only available here at Terretronics. It straps right onto your wrist, and extends for netbattling, so you don't need an adapter. In addition, to save time, you can log your entire chip library into it, so you don't even need to slot new chips into it every custom. It's a bit pricier than the official model, but it's well worth it if you plan on netbattling." The girl seemed much more interested in this one.

"How much--" Her words were cut off as a boy turned a corner too quickly, running right into her. He hit the ground, and Luke barely managed to catch her before she fell as well, her watch bouncing against the counter. She looked at him in relief, and Luke smiled hesitantly as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm so sorry," the other teen said, getting to his feet. His alarmingly silver hair and eyes contrasted with his tanned skin as he got to his feet. He appeared to be unsuited with an occurrence like this one. "It was a shoelace--shoestring--are you all right?"

The girl nodded, politely indicating to Luke that he could let her go, before examining her watch. "Oh, no, my watch! It must have broken when I fell against the counter." She took the watch and inspected it carefully.

"I could fix that for you," Luke said as he examined the watch over her shoulder. From first glance, the only thing that seemed the matter was that the glass had been cracked, and the sudden blow had stopped the watch's hands.

"Really? Oh, thank you, Mr.…what did you say your name was?" The girl looked at Luke, who wasn't wearing his ID badge.

"Luke."

"Lee." They both looked over at the other boy, Luke only now realizing he was still there. He seemed embarrassed to have answered. But the girl simply smiled at him.

"Don't worry about bumping into me. It's not a big deal." She smiled, and a similar smile began to grow on Lee's face. She then looked back at Luke, who was intently looking at her watch. "What is it?"

It took Luke a second or two to register her question, and he looked up at her, puzzled. "This watch, it's not a woman's watch, is it? It belonged to your father."

She stepped back, surprised. "Yes…but how could you know?" Wordlessly, Luke turned over the watch revealing the back, with an engraved message: To Chaos Alpha, for his efforts to maintain justice within the ONBA. She looked about her a bit nervously, and then whispered, "Yes, Luke. My father led the Chaos Union."

Luke was surprised, and multiple thoughts ran through his head, not the least of which that her father was a murderer. But Lee spoke up, startling him even more. "My father was in the Union as well." As Luke and the girl stared, Lee removed his watch, revealing a similar message: To Chaos Theta, for the lending of his power to the ONBA. "So your father is Shroud Taruka then," Lee continued, making no mention of his part in the murder of Dr. Hikari almost fifteen years ago.

The girl smiled and nodded. "Yep. My name's Seija, his oldest child." Luke was now feeling quite left out. Even if Shroud had ended his career an assassin, he had once been leader of the Chaos Union, a group whose fame eclipsed even the ONBA. And as for Lee…his father could only be Brian Aurion, both a prominent ONB agent and Chaos Union member. His father was nothing more than a simple gadgeteer.

"Well, I'll head into the back and fix this. Stay right here and I'll be out in a few minutes." Luke then walked off towards the back of the store and entered his father's workshop, seconds before his father himself entered the store and headed towards the front.

"Luke should be working customer service," he thought to himself as he walked down the aisles. But as usual, his son was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and prepared to search the employee's lounge for him when a phrase drifted into his ear.

"I just can't believe both our fathers were in the Chaos Union."

He spun to face Lee and Seija, amazed to have heard those words. "What did you say?"

Seija and Lee both froze, hoping no one else had heard them speaking. Seija respectfully bowed to Matthias as she replied, "What did you think we said, sir?" But Matthias had only seen one woman bow like that in his life, and the boy was beginning to look familiar too.

"Don't play dumb. You're Shroud's daughter, aren't you? And you couldn't be anyone's son than Brian's." Both children seemed surprised, but only for a moment. Unlike his son, Matthias' ID badge had been pinned on after he walked through the door.

"Matthias Terre?" Seija gasped impulsively, her hands leaping to cover her mouth. "Your meeting is finished already? But I had hoped--I mean, well…"

Matthias had heard a similar tone before, and since he didn't see Irine anywhere…"Your father doesn't know you left Neo Arcadia, does he?" Seija slowly shook her head. "It seems I'll need to get you home then. Have you two seen my son around? He looks just like I do, only younger." The family resemblance between him and his son was uncanny, and impossible to miss.

Seija and Lee nodded. "We just spoke to him," the latter replied. "He's fixing Seija's father's watch right now."

As if anything else could happen today. "The watch, was there an engraving on the bottom?" Seija nodded, and Matthias looked at his own watch, careless of the time. "Listen you two…you can't tell Luke that I was in the Union. He doesn't know about it."

Both teens nodded slowly, curious as to why any former Chaos Union member wouldn't want his son to know the truth about his past. Lee started to voice his concern, saying, "Mr. Terre…" but Luke returned with Seija's watch too soon.

"I see you're back, Dad. This is Seija and Lee." He walked over to Seija and gave her watch back.

"They've already introduced themselves to me," his father responded. "And it seems Seija here needs a ride back to Neo Arcadia. Her father and I met while I was in school, so I feel a bit obligated to help her get home. Let the employees know that they should close up at six." With that final word, Matthias began to walk towards the back of the store, leaving Luke as puzzled as he had been when his father had left in the morning.

Lee almost left the store then and there, but something stopped him. "Luke…" he said, causing his new friend to turn around. "I can't tell you why, but…you need to go to Neo Arcadia with your father somehow. Trust me."

For some reason Luke could never understand until much later, he did trust Lee. He nodded briefly before hurrying over to the customer service desk and contacting his netnavi Aeon via one of the computers.

"So, how was that girl?" John asked as he finished instructing a 72-year old woman on where to find USB cables. Luke shrugged as he began sending a list of commands to his netnavi. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Luke straightened up and looked over at his friend. "Listen, John. I can't explain now, but I will later. Tell the rest of the employees that we're closing at six, and they need to report in to Aeon before they can leave. He'll be residing in the huge television at the front of the store come six. Can you do that for me?"

Confused, John nodded. "But where are you going?" he asked as Luke grabbed his coat and hurried towards the back.

"Neo Arcadia!" the impudent youth replied as he grabbed Lee and began dragging him along, despite his protests. "Come on, Lee," Luke said as he reached the back and typed in the security code. "If I have to sneak onto a jet to get to Neo Arcadia, I'm not doing it alone."

Lee groaned, but followed Luke up the steps as the faint sounds of the jet's engines charging emanated through the staircase. They burst open the door on the roof and kept running, for the plane's engines were mere seconds from full charging. "Hurry!" Luke shouted, the plane recognizing his biorhythms as he ran towards it and opening the door. "My father shouldn't be able to see us if we keep tight to the inside!" Miraculously, they managed to reach the door and pulled themselves inside, closing the door just in time to keep the roar of the engines from deafening them.

Lee collapsed in exhaustion. "I knew I never should have stopped in for that memory card," he muttered softly as the jet rocketed back towards Neo Arcadia.

"Are you kidding me?" Luke replied as he unsteadily got to his knees and crawled towards the back of the plane. "This is the most excitement I've had in a month."

-- 5:45 PM, 1580 Iota Complex, Neo Arcadia --

Shroud slowly walked through the streets of the Housing District, looking around at the mirth around him. A child rushed past his feet, chased by a copyroid no bigger than she was. There was a time, long ago, where seeing a child chased by a copyroid would be among the most alarming occurrences of his day. Now, it was among the happiest.

Seeing his doorstep ahead of him, Shroud veered slightly to the left, walking up the steps to his door. He palmed the scanner outside and the door opened, revealing a cozy home, slightly bigger than average. As he stepped inside and took off his shoes, a small blur raced towards the door, screaming, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" at the top of his little lungs. Shroud chuckled, bending down and scooping up his son.

"Yes, yes, I'm home now, Saishi." Shroud lifted the 5-year old onto his shoulders as his wife descended the stairs. Irine was holding Seitoka in her arms, and he was miraculously asleep. Shroud walked over and gave her a kiss before looking at the woman he had married. Irine had always been beautiful, but having three children had only matured her, making her beauty more motherly.

"Nice to see you're home on time," she said with a witty smile. She then turned your attention to Saishi. "Now, Saishi, your brother's finally asleep. Be quiet, okay." The impish youth giggled and put a finger to his lips.

"You too, Daddy." Shroud laughed at that and looked up at his son.

"All right, run along now." He reached up and pulled Saishi over his head, setting him on the ground.

"Daddy, did you meet with King X today?"

"Lord X, Saishi. Yes, I'm going to do him a favor tomorrow with some old friends. Now go play with your sister or something, all right?" Saishi nodded and ran upstairs again.

"Seija's not here. She said she was spending the night at a friend's or something," Irine said, bouncing her newborn son lightly up and down. "I haven't seen her since breakfast though, so I wonder whose house she'd be at this long." Shroud, of course, missed the subtle accusation Irine was pointing towards her daughter.

"Well, I'm sure she's fine. Now, the Chaos Union and I are going to be going on that mission tomorrow as planned. Are you going to be fine here?"

Irine nodded, but realized that Shroud didn't understand: Irine was positive that Seija was no longer on Neo Arcadia. She opened her mouth to inform him, but a knock on the door silenced her.

"Let me get that," Shroud said. "You should go sit down or something." Irine rolled her eyes, but went off into another room and put the baby in his crib. She then moved into the comfortable living room, sitting upon one of their fluffy couches. Meanwhile, Shroud opened the door to reveal Pavo, Link, and a tired-looking woman standing next to Link. Behind them, a pair of children was tussling in the street.

"Kids! Get in here!" Link shouted, before returning his attention to Shroud. "Hey, Shroud. Mind if we come in?"

"Sure, by all means." Shroud stepped back inside the house, giving his guests and the whirling dervishes room to remove their shoes. "Come on in." He led the way into the living room, sitting next to Irine as their son barreled back down the steps.

"Are you Daddy's friends?" he asked, bouncing up and down the steps.

"Yep. I'm Link, and this is my wife Zelda," Link replied, introducing her to both Saishi and the others.

"And I'm Pavo. Want a Cactusman campaign plushie?" Pavo pulled a green cactus-like toy from his pocket. The pseudo-navi was holding a sign that read: Vote Queso! Shroud caught a glimpse of it and raised an eyebrow, prompting Pavo to explain. "I started the Cheese Party for Mexico. Vote Queso was my campaign slogan, and I made about seven tons of these plushies before I found out plushies can't be handed out to gain support."

"Yay! Squishy!" The toy was apparently a big hit, because Saishi squeezed it to his chest before running over and showing it to Irine. "Look, Mommy! It's a prickly man!"

"Eh. Close enough." Pavo walked into the room and gingerly sat in a rocking chair that looked to be about eighty years old. In the meantime, Link and his wife sat on another couch.

"Don't mind the two small forces of destruction, they're mine. Dakota, Jade, meet everyone. Everyone, meet Dakota and Jade," Link said. The forces themselves ran in and plopped onto the floor.

"Dad, I'm almost 13." From this close, Shroud could see that the children were of opposite genders, the boy being the elder, and the girl now opening her mouth as well.

"And I'm 10!"

"Shh. You're supposed to be 7 and 4," Link replied, obviously in denial.

"And I presume they like liquid cheese?" Pavo asked, correctly assuming Link's kids were as random as he had been.

"Live on it," they both replied in unison.

Pavo just shook his head. "Zelda, how do you manage to put up with so much randomness and liquid cheese 24/7, 365 ¼ days a year?"

"Friends. Lots of friends." They all began to laugh at that, which seemed to amuse the Blades children.

"Speaking of randomness, let's have another Copyroid battle," the elder said, pulling a miniature copyroid from his pocket. His sister copied him, pulling a similar one from her pocket and loading it into her PET. Within seconds, two miniature navis formed from the electronic devices, one a semi-generic navi with an overabundance of armor, the other a Mettaur with arms, legs, and a body.

"No, you two. Busterman and Mettaurman can't fight inside. Have them go out in back," Zelda said. The two siblings nodded and raced towards the back door, their navis following. "And don't break anything!" she shouted after them.

Outside, Matthias and Seija were walking up to the door. "Now, remember, Seija. You can't tell your father that I haven't told Luke about the Chaos Union." The girl nodded, and palmed the scanner, opening the door. She attempted to slip up the stairs unnoticed, but her mother's sharp eye caught her.

"Stop right there, young lady!" Seija froze involuntarily, looking hesitantly at her mother.

"What's the matter, dear?" Shroud asked, thoroughly confused. "Didn't you say she was at a friend's house?"

"That's what she said. But I checked with all her friends, and she wasn't there." Understanding began to grow on Shroud's face.

"But if she wasn't at any of her friends' houses, then where--" Shroud suddenly noticed Matthias in the doorway. "You went to Electopia, didn't you?"

Seija swallowed, and then nodded stiffly. Shroud frowned, and both Taruka women flinched. "Shroud, please, not now. The baby--"

"SEIJA! GO TO YOUR ROOM! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY GROUNDED!"

No one moved for a moment. Then Seitoka started to cry, and Irine leapt to her feet, scurrying into her son's room. As all eyes went to Irine, Seija stifled a sob and ran up to her room. Saishi followed, although whether to comfort or tease his older sister was anyone's guess. Shroud sighed, rubbing his temples to alleviate a minor headache that was slowly growing.

"If it's any consolation, she came to visit me," Matthias lied smoothly. "She said she wanted to know more about the Chaos Union, from a different point of view." He entered the room and sat in another chair. Link and Pavo attempted to add some comedic flavor to the atmosphere, but their efforts were futile. Yet this was the least of the problems that would soon fall on this evening.

-- 6:03 PM, Theta Complex, Neo Arcadia --

Luke and Lee wandered the streets of Neo Arcadia aimlessly, hoping they could find their way to Seija's house. They'd somehow made a wrong turn while following Luke's father, and were somewhere in Theta Complex, the complex adjacent to the one where Seija lived, according to a passing netnavi. It still surprised Luke that netnavis walked the streets freely.

"These copyroids are really something else," Luke said, watching a brown navi with a rifle clipped to his back jog down the streets, inspecting anyone unfamiliar, including them. "Netnavis in the real world…why aren't there other cities like this?"

"ONBA doesn't trust them. Humans they can keep an eye on, for weapons and stuff. But a navi in a copyroid can pretty much do just about anything they want, since most of them are wirelessly connected to the Net." Lee rummaged through his pocket and pulled something obviously mechanical out of it. "This is a pocket copyroid my father got for me. They're only manufactured in countries that haven't been fully linked to the Net, and aren't bound by the laws of the ONB."

Luke took the copyroid and looked at it while he walked. The device was a thin sheet of metal with lights woven across it, about the size of an ancient floppy disc. "Interesting…but I think I'd prefer Cross Fusion."

Lee simply shrugged and took the copyroid back. "It's apparently not all it's cracked up to be. My father used to be an S-License, and he says Cross Fusion is mainly just a power boost. And a risky one at that. You don't have to be in sync to Cross Fuse, but if you're not…" He let that thought trail off as they came to a large gate. Across the top of it was a large sign, reading Iota Gate II.

"This must be it," Luke said, walking up to it and looking for a scanner and finding nothing but a card reader. "It looks like you need a card or something to get through here."

Lee stepped up to the reader a moment, studying it intently. Then, he pulled his copyroid from his pocket, the metal shrinking to accommodate the thinner slot. After a moment, the gates began to open. When Luke looked at him, puzzled, his friend simply replied, "Copyroids can't carry cards on their persons." Appeased, Luke led the way into the district.

About midway through the district, something caught Luke's ear. "Did you hear that?" Lee looked at him oddly for a moment, before hearing it as well. "Yeah…"

"Mettaurman, killify!"

"Busterman, eliminate!"

Lee and Luke looked at each other a moment, and then crept closer to the voices. Looking around a corner, they could see two children and two copyroids, the latter apparently fighting a battle in the streets. The house behind them was brightly lit, and Luke faintly heard his father's voice coming though an open window. "This is the place," he muttered.

Unfortunately, his soft words were apparently loud enough to be audible to the copyroids, because the heavily armored one stopped to listen, which caused him to be body-slammed by his opponent. "Quit it, Mettaurman. I think I heard someone." The navi got to his feet and looked around, causing the two lurking friends to drop to the ground, hiding behind some crates stacked along the corner.

"We need some way to distract them," Luke muttered. Lee nodded, picking up a pebble and tossing it across the street, hoping the others would think they were over there.

Unfortunately, the children and their navis weren't nearly that stupid, watching the rock fly through the air with disdain. "Busterman, find out what's behind that crate, please." His navi obliged, firing his buster at the crates and blowing them up, revealing a singed Lee and Luke behind. "Okay…want to play target practice, guys?"

Luke looked over at Lee. "Run?"

"Run." The two teens darted down the alley, making a left towards the house when they first could. Giggling with the delight of mayhem, Dakota and Jade followed, their navis taking them seriously. Halfway down one of the alleys, Luke leapt towards one of the walls, bouncing off it once or twice and landing roughly on a rooftop. "Thank goodness I keep in shape," he muttered before swinging his arm over the side and extending it towards Lee. "Hurry up!"

As Lee grabbed his hand and Luke began to pull him up, a window next to him opened up, revealing a teary-eyed Seija. "Luke? What are you doing here?"

"Right now, I'm not too sure," he replied, finally managing to pull Lee over the side but falling through her window as a result. Both boys unsteadily got to their feet and helped Seija up, and below, the Blades children realized their quarry had escaped.

"Too bad," Dakota said as they jacked their navis out of their copyroids. "That was one of the more enjoyable things I've gotten to do in a long time."

His sister agreed. "Let's go upstairs and bother them," she said as she raced inside and scurried up the steps, Dakota following at a slower pace.

"Nice to see you again," Luke muttered as he brushed off his sleeves.

"Luke? Lee? What are you guys doing here?" As Seija finished speaking, Jade and Dakota burst into the room.

"Hey, Seija! Do you know these guys? Is one of them your boyfriend? Why were they running?" Jade somehow managed to shout out all three of her questions without breathing, and Luke began to worry about her sanity.

"Umm…yes, no, and I presume it was because you were shooting at them," Seija replied, a bit flushed at Jade's impertinent second question.

Luke turned a bit red as well, but felt compelled to answer Seija's earlier question. "We stowed away on the jet when my dad flew you back. Lee said that I should, for some reason. And who are you two, anyways?"

Dakota spoke up this time. "I'm Dakota Blades, and this is my little sister Jade. Our father was a member of the Chaos Union. He's downstairs."

Luke sighed and sat on Seija's bed, depressed and confused. "This doesn't make any sense. If all your parents were in the Chaos Union, then why is my dad downstairs talking to them as if they're old friends?" A look passed between Seija and Lee, and they quickly attempted to warn Dakota and Jade without Luke noticing, but they were too late.

"Don't you know?" Dakota asked obliviously. "Your father was Chaos Gamma, a member of the original three Chaos Union members."

Silence reigned throughout the room. "What'd I say?"

"How could my father be in the Chaos Union?" Luke finally managed to spit out. "He was in the ONB while they existed, and ever since then, he's been a gadgeteer!"

But Dakota shook his head. "Nope. See, here's a group photo they took a bunch of years ago." Dakota pulled a crinkled picture out of his wallet and gave it to Luke, who stared at it in disbelief. There his father stood, right next to a teenager that could only be Seija's father. "The picture was taken after they became an ONB strike force," he continued as he took the picture back.

"But that's impossible…" A thought struck him, and he glared at Seija and Lee. "You knew, didn't you? That's why my father was talking to you back at Terretronics. And that's why you wanted me to get on the plane and come here, so I'd find out."

Lee feebly nodded. "He told us not to tell you, so…you had to find out for yourself." Seija nodded in agreement, tears not far again.

Luke stood then, enraged at his father's deceit. "I guess I'll have to have a talk with dear old dad then, won't I?" He stormed out of the room, leaving the four children to stare after him.

Downstairs, the Chaos Union members had decided to begin planning for their mission tomorrow, and Zelda was helping Irine in the kitchen. Currently, Matthias was discussing some logistical aspects of the plan. "So, as I was saying, if we're going into the desert, we'll need some way to keep cool until the sun sets. In addition, we should keep trying to contact--"

"Ahem." All heads turned to face Luke, standing on the stairs a few steps up. "Planning a trip, Chaos Gamma?" Matthias stood silently, staring at his son, unable to answer.

As the other children descended the stairs, stopping behind Luke, Link hesitantly got up and stepped between the Terres. "All right, let's not kill each other, Matthias and…Matthias' son."

Luke ignored Link, pushing him aside as he finished walking down the rest of the steps. "Oh, I wouldn't dare fight the brave Chaos Gamma. He might stab me with his Spear of Ice, or cut me to ribbons with his Cyber Slashers. Every night you told me tales of the adventures of the Chaos Union, Dad. But no one else knew those stories. So I just assumed that they were bedtime stories, not meant to be true. But I guess lies turn out to be the most truthful tales of all, don't they?"

"I didn't tell you for your own good, Luke! I couldn't! You want so desperately to save the world, but you don't think of the consequences!"

"But justice is its own reward, Chaos Gamma! What price might be so high you wouldn't have me pay it for justice?"

"Your grandfather died because of me!"

A chill ran over the room. Matthias' face was now a mixture of red and gray, and a specter of death had draped itself over the group. Luke simply stared at his father, his friends behind him only moderately more surprised.

"Is that price enough for you? He died in my arms, because I was too busy 'saving the world' to save him. And I fought on, until the day we were forced to stop. I promised your mother that I would never fight again, and I've kept it until now." Matthias looked over at Shroud, and his former leader's eyes held sorrow, and even regret. But they still burned with the passion they always had, and Matthias then knew that tomorrow, he'd be risking his life again.

Turning towards the door, he spoke softly as he put his shoes back on. "Say goodbye to your friends, Luke. We're going home." With that parting blow, he walked out the door. Luke hung his head, and then turned it wordlessly towards the others, giving a half-hearted wave before walking out, leaving a very silent Chaos Union behind him.


	4. Beginning of the End

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the Megaman series or anything related to them. Capcom does. All other characters are the monetary property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** First fight scene, everyone! It might be different from how you remember, because that's how I want it. Be prepared, the small changes I've already made are the least of what you'll be seeing. So make sure you tell anyone you know about this story, including random strangers. Enjoy!

-

_The sun rose on a misty morning, fog drenching the rooftops of the Chaos Union Headquarters. Nothing stirred upon the roof, but only a floor below, its members trained._

_Their recently upgraded Labyrinth was currently in its most basic form, an average-looking gymnasium, although one that took up the entire seventh floor of their facility. Various equipment was strewn about the area, and two or three members were exercising. But the majority of the others were in the Watchtower high above, watching the members below. The Watchtower was nothing more than a control room built into the north wall, but from it, one entered or exited, and could set up a session._

_Currently, J.G. was sitting at the computer, typing in the specifications for the two battlers that stood beyond the large glass window of the Watchtower. Irine sat beside him, looking intently at Shroud, and Link, Matthias and Golex were also within, wither seated at a terminal of against the walls of the small room."All right, you two. I've locked the battlefield into position around you, so you won't be able to interfere with the others. Ready?"_

_The two competitors nodded at the same time, and J.G. couldn't help but be amazed at how much alike Shroud and his cousin were. Mikoto Sakura, sometime CU member, might not have shared her cousin's last name, but they were nearly mirror images of each other, or as close as possible without sharing parents. She was clad in a red jumpsuit and held a steel katana in her hand, rubies set into the hilt. Her cousin, on the other hand, wore only his simple black ninjitsu robes, and openly had no more than two shuriken as weapons. Of course, he surely had a dozen or so more and a dagger hidden somewhere on his person._

_The simulation settled itself around them, a solid-light construct developed by Matthias and SH. This was only it's third usage; all prior simulations had been created with robotics or simple holograms, which proved to be awkward when you leaned up against a tree and fell down. The environment chosen was a dark forest, which gave Shroud the initial advantage due to his skill of hiding in shadows. But Mikoto had a few skills of her own._

_She began the fight quickly, reaching into a pocket and grabbing a flare of some sort, which she tossed at Shroud. Her cousin rolled aside,vanishing amidst the foliage but true to life, the trees around burst into flame. She tossed another flare into another set of trees before holding her katana in both hands and cautiously stalking Shroud through the jungle._

_From his position leaning against the back wall, Matthias could see how effective his work had been. He himself had been a member of the first trial of the new system, and it hadn't been nearly as good as this. He and SH had fixed it then, and again, and this third version seemed like a winner, in his eyes. He'd have to wait until SH saw the footage when he returned from a Recovery Mission to get his opinion._

_"Matthias Terre, please report to the atrium. You have a visitor." The AI computer Matthias had dubbed Jazz came over the intercom to the Watchtower, and luckily the motherly system had seemed to notice that the Labyrinth was active, not projecting her voice into the simulation._

_"That's odd," Matthias said, standing upright. "I wasn't expecting anyone..." He waved to the others, trying to control his emotions upon viewing the engagement ring Irine had recieved several months prior, and stepped out of the room and into the elevator, traveling down to the first floor._

_The elevator was a fast one, and Matthias scarcely had time to think before the doors open and he stepped through the door to see a man standing in the atrium, his back towards him. It had been a long time since he'd seen him, but Matthias recognized his father even before the astronomer turned around to face him._

_Dr. Nathanial Terre was no high profile scientist, but he had still managed to work his way up through the ranks at NAXA, the Netopian Astronomical and eXtraterrestial Administration. His father had stayed out of the alien division of the place, but he was the head of the Astronomy department, second only to the leader of the entire administration. It had made him distant from Matthias and his brother, even before their mother had died. The combination of losing their mother and his shipping off to boarding school had certainly destabilized his brother, and had most certainly led to the malicious deeds Matthias was half-positive he was accountable for. Then again, the loss hadn't made him any better of a person either._

_"I see you're...home, I suppose." His father had seemingly aged in the past year or so since Matthias had seen him. The last time they had seen each other, it was the summer of his sophomore year, the Chaos Union was leaving their base on NAXA, and his father was stil oblivious to the fact that the Chaos Union was more than a group of kids from school, practicing their Netbattling skills over the summer. Now, he would be a senior, had he not been taking his classes online over the last year, and his father's once black hair was now flecked with gray hairs, and his temples were nearly pure white._

_"Yes, father. This is my home now. I am surprised to see you though." Matthias knew what this conversation would likely entail, and steeled himself for the demand to return to his home on NAXA._

_"How is your brother?"_

_That wasn't the question he was expecting, and it threw Matthias for a loop. After all, how was one supposed to tell his father that Alex was most likely the head of Checkmate, an evil syndicate that intended on killing off the "White team", who apparently seemed to be a majority of the Chaos Union. In the end, Matthias had to tell him something._

_"I haven't seen him lately, not since a bit after he graduated."_

_His father seemed to accept that, and then pressed on. "That's not why I'm here. Matthias...I would certainly like an explanation."_

_"Of what?"_

_"Your...excapades with this 'Chaos Union'! While you were with them at NAXA, I thought nothing of it, but apparently now you're an ONB strike team, if rumor is to be believed. And you're also no longer a full time student at Den Academy, which I only learned when they sent me a letter asking if you still wished to participate in graduation, at which time I discovered you'd been secretly taking classes online!"_

_It seemed that his father knew more than Matthias had been expected. But that changed nothing. "I will not return to NAXA with you, father. My time there is done, both with you and with the Chaos Union."_

_His father didn't take that well. "So you would stay here with these fools who think that they can save the world! Open your eyes, Matthias! You want so desperately to save the world, but you never think of the consequences!"_

_"What price might be so high that you wouldn't have me pay it for justice?"_

_Nathanial Terre had no answer yet. But he soon would. "If this is what you feel you must do, then you cannot be my son. My son is no vigilante, no 'hero'. My son is a teenage boy, almost an adult now. But not quite yet. I pray I see my son again before I die." He turned on his heel and left the building, leaving a man behind who had become more fully Chaos Gamma._

_Nathanial Terre never said another word to his firstborn son._

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

**_Chapter 3: _**_Principis Clausula_

_- _

-- Saturday, March 29th, 3: 53 PM, Southern Outpost, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Shroud exited the taxi and tipped his driver, a human who seemed rather irked to have been hired to drive all the way from the Housing District in the northeastern portion of the city to the Southern Outpost, which, despite its name, was more southwest than anything. "This is why I usually take Copyroid-driven taxis," he thought to himself as he gave the driver a zenny or five extra. If they failed today, he wouldn't have much time to spend it anyways.

The taxi sped off, and Shroud began walking towards the Outpost, checking the time on his empty PET. Juno had slipped himself into his Copyroid sometime last night, leaving a message stating that he would meet him near the Vile 5's base. To be honest, Shroud had no idea what his navi was doing, especially since this mission would be requiring the use of Synchro Chips rather than Copyroids. Still, he trusted his navi, and entered the building, flashing his security ID at the guards as he passed.

"I'm here on a mission for Lord X," he said as he approached a military officer standing behind a desk. The officer nodded and informed him that the mission he was speaking of would begin in the loading bay, where his superior was waiting for him. Shroud didn't like the sound of this 'superior', but thanked the officer and made his way to the loading bay, opening the steel door to an immense garage, housing a majority of Neo Arcadia's land-based vehicles. He was about to ask someone where he was to go, but a gruff voice called out to him from the right.

"Shroud! Get over here; I don't have all damn day!" Shroud turned to see with a moderate amount of dismay that the voice was coming from the mouth of Fefnir, one of X's children and generals. Unfortunately, Fefnir was the least liked general, and took pride in it. It seemed that he would need to be a bit more assertive than usual today.

"Keep your circuits on!" Shroud called back, not meaning anything of the sort. He walked over to the fiery general, his crimson armor glimmering with the same sheen as his overly polished flamethrower. "Is anyone else here?"

Fefnir nodded, pointing to a room behind him. "There's 2 or 3 in there, I lost count."

"I don't doubt that," Shroud muttered to himself as he walked past and pushed open the door. Within, Link and Pavo sat at a table, discussing something that sounded suspiciously like the consistency of liquid cheese, and Matthias and Brian were looking over the Synchro Chips they had apparently been provided with. They all looked up as he entered the room, and Matthias spoke first, a grin masking his apprehension.

"Nice of you to join us, Shroud. Traffic too thick?" The group chuckled, but Shroud only did so half-heartedly.

"Nah, I was out looking for Seija. She ran off last night. None of you ran into her, did you?" The others shook their heads, and Shroud was about to continue speaking when the door burst open behind him, revealing Fefnir and a teenager held captive by the navi's firm grip, who looked as though he wished he hadn't come.

"This kid says that he's supposed to be on the mission, but he's not on my list." Fefnir said, the kid in question trying to break free from his iron grip. "Says his name is Alistor."

"Alistor?" Shroud said, looking around at the others. "Isn't that Raymond's navi?" His friends nodded, but Alistor spoke up in his own defense.

"I'm Raymond's nephew! Look, he gave me this Synchro Chip and shipped me off this morning." Alistor fished through his pocket with his free hand, pulling a chip from his pocket, which Shroud took and inspected.

"Hmm…looks legit. Let him go, Fefnir." Shroud handed the Synchro Chip back as Fefnir relaxed his grip. The boy began rubbing his arm to restore its circulation, and Matthias spoke up behind Shroud.

"If this kid is here in Raymond's place, then let's get going. We won't have daylight for long." The others nodded and got up, waiting for Fefnir to show them where to go.

"All right then. Follow me." Fefnir turned and led the group out of the room and down a ramp towards a large vehicle that resembled a boat with tire treads. The seven of them boarded, and Fefnir typed in some coordinates on the bridge and then headed back to the main portion of the ship. Everyone else had already seated themselves and strapped in, so Fefnir simply stood and addressed them as the ship began to move. "Now, we'll be at the general area of the base in an hour or so. The ship is locked on to Juno's signature, and he's supposed to have already found the general area. When we get there, we search for the entrance. Got it?"

"Yep," the group answered in unison. Fefnir nodded and returned to the bridge, leaving the Chaos Union to themselves for the moment. Normally, this was the moment where Shroud would try to brief them on their plan, and Link and Pavo would interject with something completely random. Brian and Matthias would roll their eyes, Shroud would laugh, and they'd grow closer and stronger as a group.

But that wasn't happening today. Almost guiltily, Shroud sat down and brought up a map of the Twilight Desert on the folding computer attached to the chair in front of him. As he looked around, he saw that Matthias was on a laptop of his own, working with Gizmo on spreadsheets. Link was using his PET to hold a conversation with his children, and Pavo held a quiet conversation with Alistor in the back, about the relatively serious topic of navi programming, from what he could hear. Brian sat a row ahead, and looked back at Shroud with a sad smile before reclining and trying to sleep.

Shroud sighed and put his head in his hands, thinking to himself. It seemed like eons had passed since they'd fought alongside each other, instead of less than two decades. Apparently, his curse was now to lose everything he'd once had in life; the Chaos Union was broken more than he'd ever believed, he was now a wanted criminal for a crime he'd never committed, and his daughter was slipping away from him. Not even thoughts could describe the anguish he felt as he sat silently among friends who had become strangers.

-- 4:49 PM, 8498 Floppi Place, Electown, Electopia --

Luke lay on the couch in a state of lethargy, bored out of his mind. His father had grounded him when he had gotten home, which meant no friends, no television, and limited computer access, as he defined. This time, he was allowed to turn it on.

His sister hurried down the steps, thin cords attached to her navi-less PET quickly being inserted into her ears, the small buds already sending their music into the room. Marie was 11 years old, and already fueled by fashion and popularity. This month's latest oddity was long blue-green hair, quite a change from her natural blonde. She wore a puffy-sleeved white shirt, with a teal sleeveless vest over it, and a black skirt that appeared to have bites taken out of it. Her sandals jingled as she walked over to him, minute bells having been added to it.

"I'm going over to Gina's. Tell Dad I'll be sleeping over." Luke waved a hand dismissively, and Marie left with a sniff of disdain. No sooner was she gone than his brother Sam hurried over, a stuffed Bunny's ears pinned in his hand.

"Luke, I'm hungry. Can you make me dinner?" Luke tilted his head to observe the small boy, and slowly got to his feet, leading the way into the kitchen.

"Just a snack, Sam. Dad ordered us take-out for later." This didn't please his brother, but Luke ignored his whining, opened a cupboard, and took out a box of graham crackers, giving Sam five or six. He rushed off again, leaving Luke alone in the kitchen.

"Cheer up, Luke." Aeon materialized on one of the countertops' monitors, elevating it so he could look at his NetOp. Luke's netnavi was fairly tall, and clad in blue and black armor. A golden scarf was wound about his neck, a gift from his 'father', Gizmo, and he leaned against an obsidian glaive with odd scrollwork winding along it. "So your father lied to you. He's Chaos Gamma! At least his lies are justified."

"That's true. But he didn't have to ground me for it. All I did was stow away on his plane." An eyebrow raise from Aeon caught his attention. "What?"

Aeon sighed, but an idea came to him. "Hey, why not just use another computer? Like your sister's?"

"My sister's Net access got cut off a month ago because Dad found out she was downloading illegal music, remember? And Sam doesn't have one, and Dad's…" A new light came into Luke's eyes, and he hurriedly rushed out of the kitchen.

"What? No, get back here!" Aeon began to race through the house's mainframe, appearing on several viewscreens as Luke walked past them. "You can't use your Dad's computer! He password-locks everything, and you don't have a chance of breaking his firewall."

But Luke ignored Aeon as he hurried up the steps. He stopped outside his father's room, its door slightly ajar, and looked over at the screen beside him where his navi now stood. "But you can. That scarf contains bits and pieces of Gizmo's data; that should be enough to find a loophole to get through. Look, all you need to do is get in, and find Dad's parental controls. Override them, and maybe get an uplink to my computer while you're at it. That's all. Easy, right?"

Aeon opened his mouth to protest, but Luke was already passing through, sitting at his father's computer desk and moving aside a picture of the two of them and his mother, taken while he was an infant. Aeon finally resigned himself to his fate and entered Matthias' computer.

He appeared in a desolate environment of what appeared to be organic metal. He wandered about, trying to keep remarkably lifelike copper rats from crawling up his legs. "Nice place your dad has here. Any clue as to what I'm looking for?"

From his side of the computer, Luke simply shrugged. "No idea. Try to find something that seems to call out to you."

"Easy for you to say. You're sitting comfortably in a padded chair while I'm traipsing around in one of the more frightening servers I've ever encountered." Aeon's words were mocking, but truth to be told, he was feeling somehow drawn, to a tree off to his left. "Hang on, I might have found something."

"Nice. I'll plug in my PET for a full-screen view." Unclipping his PET watch, he loaded into a slot designed for the purpose, and the computer's screen changed from the desktop picture of the four living Terres to the barren wasteland of his server. "You weren't kidding about this server, Aeon."

"I know," he replied, stopping before the tree. Like everything else, the tree was made of metal, in this case a lithe silver or platinum, and similarly colored apples hung from its boughs. "False alarm, Luke. I don't see anything important. Except…" His eyes caught a glimpse of another apple, this one golden. Impulsively, he plucked it, and when nothing happened, he took a bite out of it.

Its juice glowed like the sun as it began to drip from Aeon's lips, and he dropped it in shock as a wave of euphoria struck him, bringing him to his knees.

"Aeon? What's wrong?" Luke leaned intently in towards his computer, unable to see whether his navi was in danger of deletion or not. Luckily, his navi got up, and Luke zoomed the camera in on him to check over his status. "Are you alright?"

Aeon nodded. "I think so. But Luke…something tells me that was a forbidden fruit." Gesturing to the side with his hand, Luke panned the camera over to see that the tree had been changed into a steel terminal.

"Well," Luke said, pulling the camera back to look the scene over fully, "it looks like our next item of business is to find out what's in that computer."

-- 4:50 PM, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

The transport stopped, jolting Shroud awake. He'd apparently been asleep for about a half-hour, judging by the last time he'd checked his watch. Pavo and Link were already leaving the ship, and Alistor was jostling Brian to wake him. Matthias was nowhere to be seen for the moment, but by the time Shroud had gotten out of his seat, he had entered from the cockpit, Fefnir following him.

"Nice to see you and Brian are awake, Shroud. Fefnir needed to consult me on the mission since you two were asleep, but it's nothing too important. I'll let you know if it becomes a problem." Shroud nodded, and Matthias led the way off the plane, the others following.

Shroud brought up the rear, and therefore was the last to see his navi and the three standing behind him. Juno was as opulent as ever, his ivory armor covered with jewels and gold scrollwork, and both pairs of his radiant wings folded behind him. His mighty sword, the Chrono Saber, was sheathed at his side, and his fingers slightly twitched in anticipation of using it. He wasn't an overly tall navi, only six feet tall, but his sheer presence made up for it. Golden eyes locked into Shroud's, and he stepped back to allow the three beside him to be better seen.

Farthest to the left was a man clothed in a traditional desert costume. His garments were a faded gray, and long-sleeved to hold his own sweat close to his skin, for cooling. A thin cloth had been wrapped around his head several times to shield it, and he reached up and removed the veil across the front of it to reveal his face. Paler than he remembered, and with a thin beard across his face, but the face of Steve Hurr wasn't one that Shroud would forget any time soon.

Beside Steve stood a less familiar but still recognizable Chris. The formerly trigger-happy teenager had been replaced by a man wearing a gray sleeveless shirt and black cargo pants. Around his waist was a belt similar to one Shroud had worn once during his training in Nation Z, and the silver necklace faintly visible around his neck and an ornate dragon tattoo upon his left shoulder marked him as a graduate of Nation Z's Setan Academy of Ninjitsu, an accomplishment Shroud had nearly earned himself.

Finally, beside Chris stood a serious-looking man whose clothing was a pale tan to match the color of the sand beneath his white tennis shoes. Golex Tjon hadn't changed much since the disbanding of the Chaos Union, but he didn't openly carry weapons anymore. Of course, openly was most likely the key word in that statement.

The group smiled as they slowly recognized their former friends, and hurried over to greet them. Juno nimbly walked around him and stood beside Shroud, who hadn't moved. "Juno…this is…how did you…"

Juno answered the unspoken question without much hesitation, as if he'd been expecting this response from Shroud. "After you and Irine went to bed last night, I made my way into several government databases to search for any other Chaos Union members that we hadn't been able to contact. Turns out that SH is second only to Matthias in supplying Electopia with gadgetry, Chris used to be on Nation Z's payroll, and Golex's name popped up in just about every two nations' list of people they need to hire."

"And how'd they take you stopping on their front doorstep?" Juno shrugged, and Shroud decided to let that question go until later. "Well, what's your initial reaction to each of them? Can we trust them to side with us?"

"I think so," Juno replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "SH didn't sound interested until I told him that X might be giving him a reward, and I think he wants a Synchro Chip to study, now that they aren't as frequently given out by the ONB. Chris is a lot harder to read than he ever was before, and Golex is just…Golex. A bit shadier than I recall, but still Golex."

Shroud pondered this a moment. "So we really shouldn't trust any of them, but we're going to anyways." Juno nodded. With this taken care of, Shroud called the group back over. "All right then. Where's this base that you apparently found, Juno?"

"It's beneath our feet. The readings X picked up were triangulated easily, and this is the spot they found. There must be a secret entrance around here, so we'd better start looking." Juno exited his Copyroid and reentered Shroud's PET, appearing on his shoulder. "Everyone should Cross Fuse now. You might need your navi's extra energy to survive the sun's heat for the next few hours."

Shroud nodded and pulled his Synchro Chip from his pocket. "A majority of you never ended up Cross Fusing before we were disbanded, so I'll go first to demonstrate the procedure." Sliding his Synchro Chip into his PET as if it were a battlechip, Shroud began to shimmer with Juno's data, eventually ending with his body covered in his navi's armor. R Juno and the original looked almost exactly the same, save that the Cross Fused version had only one pair of wings and Shroud's blue eyes.

"All right," the Cross Fused warrior said to his companions. "You all try it now, starting with Brian since he's done it before as well…"

"Hey!" Fefnir's cry alerted the Chaos Union, and they turned to look over at him. The fiery navi had grown bored of listening to them talk, and wandered off. Now, he was several yards away from the transport, and looking down into some shifting sands below. "I don't think this is normal for--"

A large explosion blew Fefnir backwards, and the Chaos Union fell back. When the smoke cleared, Fefnir lay on the ground, his copyroid body sparking and smoking, and a new navi stood in his place. Its Copyroid body was at least 8 feet tall, and it was large as well. This foreboding figure wore white armor over his arms and legs, and a similarly colored white cloak was worn over his black bodysuit. A jagged crest of red hair protruded from its helmet, from which two red eyes stared, and in his right hand was a crimson energy saber with a lethal-looking cross upon its edge, poised to attack the Chaos Union.

"Welcome to the Twilight Desert, Chaos Union! It's a shame your first mission after all these years shall be a failure!" The unknown navi then dashed towards the group, and R Juno leapt forward to stop him, his Chrono Saber deftly wielded against his foe

"Guys! Hurry and Cross Fuse!" His blade was easily swept aside every time by his opponent, and Shroud hoped that he could hold out until his friends supported him.

He wasn't disappointed. Brian had begun to Cross Fuse the instant after the explosion, green and yellow armor already covering his legs and torso while crimson gauntlets materialized along his arms. A crimson helmet completed the ensemble, and a mouthguard and blue visor slid across his face as he drew the mighty Mystic Blade he could wield as R Hika, slicing through the new navi's blade and forcing him to leap back to avoid being hit by R Juno.

Their foe quickly reignited his energy saber and rushed at R Juno and R Hika, but was stopped by a powerful energy surge. R Gizmo stepped forward, green sparks of electricity flowing across his armor. "Nice try, but I think that we've gotten you beat."

"Not at all. You shouldn't underestimate a navi as powerful as I." Their foe leapt over the trio, landing beside the others and attacking the weakest link, young Alistor. Unfortunately for him, a red-armored warrior with a golden sword and reflective shield blocked him, and the others were surprised to hear Link's voice exit the warrior's mouth.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" R Legendman pushed the navi backwards, towards another Cross Fused member of their team, this one clad in the semblance of a turkey. Unlike the others, Pavo's navi wasn't humanoid, so his armor had more bestial characteristics, such as small wings attached to his arms and a mouthguard that looked suspiciously like a beak. He formed a glowing green sphere and threw it at the incoming copyroid, blowing it away.

When their impromptu foe got to his feet, the nine of them had encircled him. The four remaining who hadn't Cross Fused yet had done so; the only one to look familiar was SH. While his navi, Kyra, had been cured of her viral infection some time ago, she retained her raccoon-like attributes, including her gray skin, pointed ears, and bushy tail, all of which were passed on during Cross Fusion. The next most similar was Golex, whose navi had only been upgraded, not changed. He was known as Hyperion now, and he hadn't changed much from his basic white armor, save for his new pair of wings and powerful-looking sword.

The other two were much different than expected. Chris had apparently received a new navi since his time in the Chaos Union, because the form he had taken was unknown to the others. His navi was now known as Volnutt, and his armor was almost robotic, a mix of blues that left his black hair exposed. As for Alistor, the others had expected him to have simply a copy of his uncle's navi. This couldn't be further from the case. His navi was a warrior known as Bladeknight, who wore gleaming silver armor over a red bodysuit, and had a pair of longswords attached to his back, now held in his hands.

"Just give up," R Juno shouted, pointing his saber at their mutual foe. "We have you outnumbered."

"Numbers mean nothing to the mighty Omega!" Omega sheathed his sword at his side and fired large beams of light into the group, dispersing them. R Bladeknight impulsively leapt back at Omega, but was casually knocked aside by a backhand from the massive navi. Still, this gave R Kyra an opportunity to slip in, delivering a thin gash on his side from a paper epée he had fitted together. Omega fired a laser at him as well, however, and he scattered.

Suddenly, four of the Cross Fused warriors attacked simultaneously, Brian, Link, Golex, and Shroud. Their blades sliced into Omega's 'flesh', and he cried out before detaching his hands, which spiraled out and forced his assailants to move back. R Kyra sent out a few origami birds to try to distract him, but his hands clapped together, crushing them.

"We need to find his weak point," Matthias said to Chris as they huddled behind a sand dune. "I'll stun him with my attack, you gather up anyone who can help and we'll finish him now." Chris nodded and hurried off. As soon as he was far enough along, Matthias popped over a sand dune and began firing an electrical surge at Omega. The unexpected jolt froze him in place…for now. Matthias could only hope that it would be enough time for Chris to return.

Chris himself had managed to find only one person so far who wasn't incapacitated, Pavo. Several of the Chaos Union members who had just attacked were unconscious or unable to fight effectively, and others were dealing with Omega's hands, which now spiraled around the battlefield. "It looks like it's just you and me, Chris," Pavo said, charging one of his radioactive attacks.

Chris sighed and charged his cannon. "Yeah. It's all or nothing." Just as Omega began to recover from R Gizmo's assault, he fired an attack of blinding light, which struck Omega instants before a radioactive sphere tossed by Pavo did. As the sphere brushed across the beam of light, something that was never thought possible occurred: the sphere broke. A bright burst of green light extended outwards, hitting what seemed like millennia before the sound of the explosion ever touched their ears.

-- 5: 02 PM 8498 Floppi Place, Electown, Electopia --

"So what is it, Aeon?" Luke's netnavi had been perusing the terminal for a few minutes now, occasionally taking small bites of the golden apple.

"Luke, it appears to be some sort of program for reviving fallen netnavis. But it's flawed; your dad apparently couldn't get it to work properly and restore the navi's personality as well. They just ended up empty shells." Aeon nibbled on his apple again, a glistening bit of perfection, before returning to the main menu of the terminal. "There's nothing left to go over except this last file, Project: Fallen. Sounds like it's just an overview of the failed project. Should I look it over?"

"Sure, why not? It's better than going back downstairs and waiting around until the pizza shows." All thoughts of breaking through his father's firewall were forgotten as Luke watched his navi open the latest file.

"Hmm…that's odd. This seems almost like a continuation of Matthias' failed project. I'll look over the specs, you read through the overview." Aeon touched a file on the screen and plucked it from the terminal, flicking it through the portal to Matthias' PC. Minimizing the window that held the camera view of his navi, Luke opened the file and began to read.

**_Project: Fallen_**

_My efforts to resurrect deleted netnavis without any frame have proved useless. While my breakthroughs are wonderful for those who make their living restoring navis, my true goal (to revive navis deleted more than 30 or 40 years ago) is apparently out of reach. Still, I hope that this latest step in the process will be a benefit to my research, my family, and the world_

_For I have managed to create a powerful program, one that allows a netnavi to assimilate the data within the net and filter it, eventually enabling them to 'reassemble' a previously-deleted netnavi within themselves. The prototype of this program is much too dangerous to lie around, however, so I have hidden it in both the most secure and least likely place, a netnavi._

_Netnavis, being among the most protected electronic data units, are an obvious choice for security reasons, and no one would expect an untested project to be applied to a netnavi, for fear of corruption. Yet I have faith that my program is as complete as possible, and I shall willingly risk this danger._

_There is only one problem: which navi to apply the program to. My own has been corrupted too much over the years, both because of age and because of his prior experience in hacking, and a generic navi is not suitable for such a program. Therefore, I have latently hidden the software for Project: Fallen within my son's netnavi, Aeon, and left the actual data within this terminal. When the time is right, I will inform both Aeon and my son of this program and allow them to claim it for their own._

_As to the program itself, I have managed to piece together the data of seven initial navis: Iceman, Sharkman, Knightman, Stoneman, Thunderman, Plantman, and Burnerman. Due to the corruption of their data over time, they have taken on different forms upon reassembly. These forms are Glacios, Azul, Ector, Alexander, Ramuh, Exodus, and Adremmalech, respectively. I have not had time to fully test their potential, but when Aeon receives them, he shall innately know what can be done with them._

_That said, I encase this document within this terminal, and will disguise it as a silver tree, with a golden apple. The image came to me in a dream, and its symbolism was not lost. For this program, this tree, is like the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, within Eden, and its golden apple, a catalyst, is the Forbidden Fruit._

_I only pray that the results are better this time than the last._

_Matthias Terre_

Luke quickly skimmed to the fine print at the bottom of the page and noted that the document was dated from two years before, around Christmas…the Christmas he had received Aeon. Closing the document hurriedly, he expanded his camera view, contacting Aeon. "Aeon, it's for us! Project: Fallen is for you and me!"

"I know." Aeon stood solemnly before the terminal, and Luke vaguely noticed a handprint scanner had appeared to the side of it. Before he could say anything, Aeon pressed his hand to it, and a dark light filled the screen, blinding Luke.


	5. Darkness Returns

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Megaman Battle Network. Capcom does. All other characters are the social property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Finally managed to get a chapter out on time. Thanks again to Cory Chung for reviewing, and to the rest of you as well. And many thanks to Pavo for supplying me with the topic that allowed me to write this flashback. Hmm...I don't think I have anything left to say. Enjoy!

-

_Pain. Darkness. A burst of light._

_These are the last things that Shroud Taruka remembers as he faintly awakens. His vision seems to be blurry, and he blinks twice, moderately improving it. Looking around, he sees that he is in a austere white room, with a steady beep coming from a machine beside him. Shroud realizes that the device is attached to his left arm, and pieces this information together to determine that he is being medically treated, perhaps in a hospital. The fact that it's taking this long to put together isn't a good sign._

_A woman in a medical coat comes in and checks his vitals, apparently unconcerned with him being awake. "Well, you seem to be doing fine, Mr. Taruka. I must say, it's a bit surprising, considering your injuries."_

_Shroud frowned, trying to focus in on the doctor or nurse's eyes. "And am I to be told what my injuries are?" He could feel small pains about him, but if he was in a hospital, it must have been more serious than that, and he was most likely on a drug of some sort to stop the pain._

_The medical personage looked him over quizzically. "We were hoping you could tell us. You came in with a rapidly dropping body temp. I've never seen anything like it. It was almost like your body was battling itself, trying to kill itself."_

_That made sense. Shroud couldn't remember all the details, but for the last month or so, he had been feeling controlled, or manipulated, and occasionally had complete blackouts. He faintly remembered fighting the Chaos Union, which really didn't make much sense, and then nothing afterwards, just this hospital bed._

_"We were about to give up hope, when all of a sudden, your body temp went back to normal quickly. You must have subconsciously responded to something your friends were saying."_

_Shroud's eyes opened wide. "My friends! Are they here?" The nurse (the girl seemed too inexperienced to be a doctor) nodded, and Shroud relaxed with a smile. "Could you send them in here please?"_

_The nurse bit her lip and looked at the door. "I-I don't think that--"_

_"Please?" The nurse finally gave in, and left the room. Soon after, Matthias, Mikoto, Link, and J.G. entered, glad that he was all right._

_"Shin!" Miko hurried over to her cousin and gave him a light hug, while the other three came up closer to him, pulling up chairs. "The doctors didn't think that you were going to make it." The normally tomboyish girl seemed to let her mask slip a moment, and was in no hurry to raise it again._

_"We made sure not to tell the doctors more than we had to," J.G. said, getting right to the point. "All we said was that we headed over to your house and we found you like this, semi-conscious and muttering. And SX is in their systems right now, 'helping' them find a prior medical record for you."_

_Shroud nodded. "Good work, everyone...but what happened to me? Was it Nation Z?"_

_Even Link's face dropped. That wasn't a good sign. "Shroud..." Matthias began. "It wasn't Nation Z. It was you." Shroud frowned, and Matthias continued. "You were...corrupted by the Dark Synchro Chip you used in Nation Z, and you formed a group to fight us. The Dark Union."_

_With those words, memory came flooding back. He had formed a group of netcriminals and manipulated the Chaos Union, both secretly and openly. He remembered the others coming to find him at Mount Belenus, and the subsequent battle, where he and Matthias had dueled in Full Synchro, their navis and their human bodies fighting move for move, until Shadow X was able to seperate his dark and light sides, allowing Matthias and Galaxyman to wound his darkness, apparently causing the wounds he faintly felt and the temperature decline that had previously plagued him._

_Suddenly, he became aware of something in his pocket, and pulled it out. It seemed to be a note of some sort, and he unfolded it while the others watched._

_**Thank you for the vacancy your departure has created. I assure you, the Dark Union will be managed much better under my leadership.**_

_**Master Shadow**_

_Shroud paled, and not just from his wounds. "It seems that I may have created a rather large problem."_

-

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

**_Chapter 4: _**_Tenebrae Revenit_

-

-- 4: 47 PM, somewhere in Neo Arcadia --

A dim light lit the small room as a figure in a black cloak entered it. A black crescent moon glistened against the light on his breast, pinned as a symbol of his rank and strengths. The other four people in the room got to their feet as their leader walked towards them, and reseated themselves only after he had sat in his own chair.

"What is the status of the Vile 5, Prelude? Are their plans ready to be put into action?" Their leader never was one for small talk.

"They need a bit more time, Master N." As was custom, Prelude spoke using the customary title of her superior, something that now came naturally to the lowest ranked member of their group. Like the others around her, Prelude wore a dark black cloak, but in the place of her leader's pin of rank was her own, a silver star. "Perhaps Lord B can create a diversion?"

"We are not to reveal ourselves, Prelude. Have you forgotten your commands already?" Lord B himself was in the habit of challenging Prelude whenever possible, if only to keep her from attempting to steal his position. His voice was crisp, as were his opponents, and upon his cloak was pinned a raging bronze flame. "The most I can do is send in a proxy. Perhaps Omega?"

"I don't trust him." This last came from another female navi, this one sitting beside their leader himself. She had worked hard to gain this position, and defeating everyone but her master himself wasn't an experience she'd like to repeat. She wore a golden lily, most tranquil of flowers, but her mood was anything but. She deeply wished she could overthrow N and get this charade of fealty over with, but she couldn't. Prelude's eyes met hers for a moment, but she visually rebuked the girl. There was a time and place for plotting and this wasn't it.

"My dear Lady M, I believe you are mistaken in your estimation of Omega's loyalties. After all, simply because we were able to turn him from his owner does not mean he is easy to turn. He will obey us until his deletion, if need be." Bolero had never liked her, but that was a resent she could bear. She would need to for now.

"No luxury do we have of time," the cryptic Requiem said, breaking a silence no one else had noticed. No one save N knew whether Requiem was male or female, but no one dared ask their grimmest member. Regardless of gender, it wore an equalized cross of ivory upon its chest, and rarely spoke.

"Requiem speaks truth. The Chaos Union may already have found the Vile 5, and in any case, we should test their strength. Bolero, send out Omega, and watch from the sidelines. Let him fight until the very last instant before deletion, and then stop the Union with your own strength. We are through here." Master N stood, and the others followed, watching as he spun on his heel and left.

As soon as Master N had left the room, Bolero quickly got to his feet and began shouting at Lady M. "What right have you to countermand me? You may hold the rank of second now, but as soon as I can defeat Requiem and take the ivory--"

A previously unseen whip cracked, and Bolero fell to the ground. The hood of his cloak was knocked aside, and a draconian face emerged, humanoid features almost lost in a sea of crimson scales and the new, venomous-looking slash across his face. "I shall not remind you again of your place, Bolero. Regardless of how you feel about your chances against me, our code dictates that you must defeat Requiem first. Now apologize to our dear comrade, with the proper title this time." Lady M coiled her thorned whip around her hand as Bolero reluctantly got to his feet.

"Forgive me…Comrade Requiem." The words were forced, but Requiem paid him no mind, giving only a brief nod and then leaving. Bolero followed quickly, contacting Omega as he went. With their companions gone, Prelude stepped over to Lady M and lowered her hood. Beneath its dark confines, one could see that she could be considered almost pretty, a stunning blonde whose hair was tied into a ponytail. Her yellow irises flashed as she confronted her superior and best friend.

"Attacking Bolero wasn't wise, my friend. You and I both know that he's looking for any excuse to have you expelled from the Quintet." Lady M only shrugged, pushing back her hood as well. Her face was almost teardrop-shaped, and she had wavy red hair with thin strands of vines woven through.

"Not attacking him would have been more foolish," she whispered to Prelude as she put away her whip. "Requiem is surely reporting to N, and I can't afford to show weakness to him. And recall that Bolero is Lord B to you, N has eyes everywhere." She then hurried out of the room, intending on going to her rooms, the only place in their base she could be sure wasn't bugged.

"Forgive me, Min--Lady M." Prelude bowed and followed her out, but stopped her rather than continue to her chambers. "I cannot visit with you this evening. Master N has commanded me to attempt to contact Serenade again, and I cannot dally. I shall see you when I return."

Lady M nodded. "Of course. Do what you must." Prelude knelt quickly and then turned to a console beside the door, pressing her hand upon it. A stream of data encircled her, and she dematerialized into their computer server.

Even after several years of experiencing the wonder of the Dimensional Chip, Minuet was amazed by its effectiveness. With one of the chips, a navi could materialize in the real world, exactly as they were on the Net. What's more, it didn't require a Dimensional Area, so these navis could travel anywhere undetected. Very few had been developed, and the five used by the Quintet had been stolen from the Underking himself by Prelude. The girl had been naïve and foolish, a perfect mark. More importantly, she had been Serenade's protégé, one of the few navis allowed to speak to him that were not Undernavis or criminals.

It had been easy for Master N to convince Prelude to obey him. Their last operative to attempt to gain the prized chips had been deleted, their very own Golden Operative, second in rank. She had risen to that height that day, and to her current sadness, had pointed out Prelude to N. She had come to the girl, pretending friendship, and convinced her that the Quintet was working with Serenade and needed the chips. When she had returned several days later, N bound her with the silver star that she now wore, linking her to them until her death or expulsion.

As if to make up for it, she had befriended Prelude, and soon found that the girl was strong, easily as strong as she was. But while Prelude wanted to challenge Bolero for supremacy, Lady M had told her not to, instead telling her that her place was at the lowest point, so N wouldn't watch her as closely. So far, their plotting had paid off.

Speaking of plotting, she had work to do. She went into her chambers and sealed the doors shut, keeping prying eyes out of her business. She removed her black cloak and hung it on a peg, revealing her to be wearing a green shirt, earth-toned pants of brown, and light slippers, a variation on her battle wear. Sitting at a computer, she turned it on and interfaced directly with it, one hand extending glowing vines that spliced themselves into the system.

A window on her browser opened, asking whether she would like to begin a video conference. She chose to accept, and the face of one of her collaborators appeared on the screen, that of a teenage boy. "Hello, my dear M," the boy said. "How did your meeting go?"

"Better than expected, Lee. It seems that your father and his friends should be confronting Omega any minute now."

-- 5: 08 PM, 8498 Floppi Place, Electown, Electopia --

"What have we done?"

In years to come, neither Luke nor Aeon would know who uttered those fateful words. But it truly did not matter, for as the light faded from the screen, Luke saw something that would become even more fateful. The Fallen.

They were surrounding Aeon, and he slowly turned to look at them. Seven magnificent creatures, ranging from his size to a towering height and from dragons to cities. "What are they?" Luke asked hesitantly.

"They are my Fallen," Aeon responded simply, walking up to the most humanoid one. It was Glacios, a being in a blue parka whose face was hidden from view by a large hood. As Aeon approached, his gloved hands raised themselves to the hood, revealing a wispy semblance of a face, his only corporeal form. Luke could only watch as Aeon set his hand on Glacios' shoulder, absorbing him into his body. Once the Fallen was gone, his eyes shone blue a moment, before he moved on to the next Fallen.

This one seemed to be a cross between a snake and a dragon, with sharp fangs and jagged fins. Azul was currently coiled in the air, and Aeon absorbed him as well, the vicious-looking creature extending his head from him to touch.

Aeon then moved onto the next Fallen, which held a large shield and knelt before Aeon as he stepped towards him. "Hello, my liege. My name is Ector, and it shall be an honor to serve you."

Aeon bowed as well, accepting Ector's vow of fealty. "Thank you, my Fallen." Extending another hand, he set it upon Ector's shoulder, and absorbed him into his body.

The next was Alexander, a miniature city, with medieval architecture and a large clock tower in the center. As Luke watched, a small man actually appeared and spoke briefly to Aeon before he absorbed it. "He wanted me to make sure I kept his people safe," Aeon later told him. "I told him that I'd do my best."

Ramuh was the last of the humanoid ones, a seemingly weak mage clad in gold robes who held a staff with a crooked tip. As Aeon absorbed the stoic Fallen, a jolt of electricity ran up his arm, and he had a strange feeling of foreboding that he quickly shook off.

The penultimate Fallen was similar in appearance to a tree, having a trunk for feet and branches extending from his back and shoulders. His head was all but hidden behind his leafy boughs, and his arms were heavily armored, huge bracers strapped to his wrists. Aeon absorbed Exodus, and felt a thin thread of resentment from the Fallen. It seemed Exodus was more suited to absorbing than being absorbed.

His last Fallen was Adremmalech, a fiery red dragon. The beast was larger than all but Alexander, and white-hot flames spewed from his mouth and his fiery tail. "You are the last," Aeon said to himself as he gingerly set a hand upon the warm scales and drew the beast within himself.

His work accomplished, Aeon returned to Luke's PET wordlessly. "I hope you still didn't want to use the Net," he said as he appeared on the screen. To Luke's eyes, nothing had changed with his navi, but faint fluctuations in the screen were occasionally visible to the teenager as he stood and picked up his PET.

"No, I'll be all right." The doorbell rang, and Sam began frantically screaming for Luke to get the pizza, but all he could do for the moment was stare into the changed eyes of his navi, and for his navi to stare back into his operator's scarred ones.

-- 5: 12 PM, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Chris slowly got to his feet, looking about him. The first thing he noticed was that he had been blown out of Cross Fusion by the explosion, and the body he soon tripped over was not Cross Fused either. Falling to the ground, Chris rolled off a prone figure he now recognized as Pavo, and quickly checked to ensure he was breathing. He was, and after a shake or two from the ninja, he sat up stiffly.

"Ouch…anyone get the number of that cactus?" Chris helped Pavo up, and the two of them looked for the others. They had been apparently blown backwards by the explosion, or so it appeared from a quick study of their trail left in the sand, and sand still flew through the air, clouding the air as if it was fog. The two of them followed the direction they had came from, and within a few minutes, nearly stepped over the edge of a cliff.

To be more precise, the cliff was actually the lip of a crater, presumably formed by their explosion. The edges of the depression were made of smooth glass, and a small hole lay beneath its center, only a few inches of glass keeping its depths closed to entry. If this truly was the results of their combined attack, Omega was nowhere to be found, nothing in the crater, save a small piece of paper that Chris couldn't read from the edge.

He wondered if the others were all right, but he didn't have long to worry, for the other Chaos Union members soon emerged from beyond the sandy fog, most of them healthy-looking. They all still held Cross Fusion, but data could be seen leaking from several of them, and they quickly began to apply Recovery chips to themselves.

Shroud saw the two of them and flew over via his digital wings, briefly motioning for Golex to examine the crater. "What the hell happened to you two? Pavo's radioactive spheres stand up to everything else in the known universe, and you split it like a melon?" The depression that their leader appeared to have been feeling earlier had slipped away, replaced by rage at their near defeat: rage that Chris disliked when used against him.

"Well, obviously my attack was designed to break things. It's a laser that disperses energy on contact, which makes it an excellent weapon against Copyroids. When it hit Pavo's sphere, it did the same thing, but it must have pierced through the outer shell and sent the energy everywhere." Pavo nodded, affirming that he believed this take of the events also.

"I could feel the orb snap, Shroud. That's exactly the way it felt. But my only question is, why haven't we grown another arm because of the radiation yet?" The three of them were silent, until SH spoke up from behind.

"Chris already explained this. Since his beam of light disperses energy, radiation could, theoretically, be completely destroyed by it. If it had any effect at all, it was only upon the two of them, knocking them out of Cross Fusion." Chris silently nodded to SH, thanking him for the save, and noted that Shroud was watching the two of them closely.

"At any rate, someone needs to get Fefnir back to Neo Arcadia for repairs, and since your Synchro Chips are surely corrupted by the feedback, run over there and get him to move into one of your PET's. Then shrink down the copyroid and head on back." Pavo nodded and hurried over, Chris following a moment later with one last look at Steve and Shroud.

It was obvious to him that there was a measure of distrust between Shroud and himself, and it seemed that SH was included within that grouping as well. For his own part, he knew that he held no harmful intentions towards his leader, but he knew nothing about SH. He would confide in Pavo, but he couldn't risk saying the wrong thing, in case his friend was taking orders from an alternate source. So it seemed that it would be up to him to discover who the traitor in their midst was, if there actually was one at all.

A call came from the inside of the crater as Chris approached Pavo and the sparking copyroid, and the ninja half-turned to go back. "Chris, you heard Shroud. We're of no use now, so let's go."

He sighed, and reluctantly bent to shrink the copyroid, disabling its sparks and putting it into his pocket. "I suppose that you're right," he said before leading the way to the ship. Something told him that this wasn't over, though. Not yet.

-

Shroud floated down into the depression as Golex called him over. He hated sending both Chris and Pavo off, especially if the former was betraying them, but they were useless at this point. Granted, their unintentional combo attack had possibly saved them all, but it was a miracle the only one to have been eradicated was Omega. It was a shame that Chris might be a traitor to their cause, because being able to harness energy of that magnitude might just save Neo Arcadia.

Shroud's boots clacked upon the glass beneath him as he approached Golex. He had lodged his sword in the ground beside him, and was holding a small note in his hand. "This was above the sealed hole, Shroud. It must have been dropped after the explosion."

He nodded and took the note from Golex. "Thank you, my friend. Go assemble the others and assess their injuries." He hated having to be lenient and generous towards the very three people he hadn't determined the allegiance of yet, but at the moment, they were among the first to have approached him after the explosion. Maybe that was the problem.

He unfolded the small slip of paper twice, unveiling it as a small sheet of paper, roughly the size of a memo pad. He skimmed the contents quickly while Golex gathered the other five around him.

_**My dear Shroud,**_

_**I will assume that this letter is reaching you, unless your injuries were more severe than they appeared moments ago. If they are, my condolences. I so looked forward to challenging you.**_

_**Yet that is neither here nor there. Let me simply begin by informing you that, yes, Omega is still alive. Satellite technology is a wonderful thing, is it not? My lieutenant Bolero informs me that it is foolish to play our hand too soon, to reveal ourselves to you. Yet that is not our way, as I am sure you will recall once I tell you who we are. I can only hope that our satellite cameras will accurately capture the look on your face.**_

_**Another matter. I trust that you have not forgotten your old navi, the one known as Cloud? Well then, I highly suggest you do, for we have managed to capture him, and take the Chronus Shards that he has searched for all these years. We had a decent percentage of them on our own, and with his stock, I can roughly say that we have roughly 90 to 96 percent of them. Your navi is now quite expendable, and will be deleted as soon as a study of his data is completed, within roughly two or three weeks.**_

_**While you are welcome to inform your team of this letter, I would ask that you keep this last bit to yourself. The Vile 5 are doomed, and their efforts shall be in vain. However, if you choose not to confront them, we will not either, and then they will succeed. So, if you want to destroy them, fight on, but the final blow will not be by your hands.**_

_**Lastly, I have chosen to tell you the name of our group. This is not to be taken lightly, despite the fact that you have surely heard of us before. No one knows we have arisen, save the Vile 5, and only the fact that I lead has permitted me to inform you. Until we meet face to face, I leave you with a name to know me by: Master N.**_

_**Goodbye, Shin Taruka. The Dark Union Quintet wishes you luck.**_

Shroud looked at the paper in disbelief, and crumbled it slowly in his fist. This was his fault again, as it had always been. The Dark Union had been born of his hatred and rage, brought to the surface by a corrupted Dark Synchro Chip he had been forced to use in his teenage years, to save his father from an evil general. His dark side had taken control of him, and he'd formed an evil agency for the most evil of criminals, those who now would be considered Darkloids.

He had broken free of them eventually, but he'd left worse in his wake: the Nation Z prototype known as Atos had filled the vacuum left by his departure, and made even more trouble for them. They had deleted Atos years before, but such an unchecked power was not so easily destroyed, fragmenting into the very Chronus Shards this Quintet claimed to hold in their possession. With all of the shards, one could theoretically resurrect Atos…and unleash him into the world once again.

That was why he'd given up Cloud all those years before, because his navi was the only one properly attuned to find the shards. He'd never bonded the same way with Juno. A bolt of remorse ran through him and he hurriedly rejoined with his navi as he felt their unity slip.

"_I know I can never be your old navi, Shroud," _his navi said from within._ "But I would have hoped for at least some sort of recognition after all these years."_ Shroud could hear the jest in his navi's 'voice', but the sadness lurked there as well.

"_Forgive me, old friend. It is merely the distress of the news. I can scarcely believe it."_

"_Neither can I, but you must not let your friends see your weakness. As our rivals said, we must keep this secret. Atos simply unnerves me, but you have fought him before, and I can feel the fear of him running off of you in tendrils."_

"_Eloquent as ever,"_ Shroud finished his private conversation with Juno and turned to face the others who now came down the crater. "Are you all fine now? Pavo and Chris have returned to the city with Fefnir, and it seems that our friend Omega has somehow survived, if this message speaks the truth."

Alistor opened his mouth in shock, but the others simply tensed, their lips settling into a thin line. They had all seen worse come back from the grave. "So now what?" Link asked, rotating his right arm stiffly.

Shroud smoothed the note again and folded it back up into quarters, stuffing it into a pocket that both appeared and disappeared seamlessly. He then strolled briskly over to the opening beneath the glass, and put his foot through it. "We go down there, whatever it is," he said, kicking the jagged edges in as he spoke. "We find out who created this base beneath the sand, and if it's the Vile 5, as I presume, we finish them here and now. Any questions?"

Silence.

"All right, then. Get in there." Shroud stepped back, and allowed everyone to slip through, those with wings using them, the rest following after and ensuring to land on their feet. Eventually, Matthias and Shroud were the only ones above ground. Shroud looked over at Matthias and put a gloved hand on his shoulder. "It's not too late, old friend. Go back to your children, if you want. If it were not for my country, I think I would too."

Matthias smiled sadly and looked back at Shroud, removing his hand from his shoulder. "It's been too late since the day Alysse died. What does another step matter when one's already fallen over the abyss?" Shroud could see the sadness he spoke of in his speech and face, but in his eyes dwelt another, one that Shroud had been faintly denying until now.

"I'm sorry, Matthias. But I loved her too." This was the core of their division, and both of them knew it.

Matthias nearly spoke of his darkest sadness then and there, but he could not. He never would. All that came was a thin smile as he stepped towards the abyss. "I know."

Matthias fell through the hole into the hidden base, and Shroud followed with a sigh soon after. Neither of them noticed the slender figure that crept over the edge of the ridge moments later, framed by the setting sun.

-- 5:41 PM, Hurr Repossession Agency, Dentown, Electopia --

The empty office hummed with the sound of an ancient air conditioner. The Hurrs could easily have found the funds for another, considering that their business was a lucrative one, but no more than one of them was in at any time, so why did it matter? Besides, moneys gained from the office were better spent on non-lethal weaponry.

Currently, the Hurr in the office was the younger of the repossessing pair, Peter Hurr. The youth in question lounged in his swivel chair, leaning backwards with his feet against the desk, pushing lightly back and forth. He wore a blue t-shirt and a pair of shorts, but not for the weather; he scarcely wore anything other than his routine apparel. His blond hair was pushed carelessly to the right, and strands of it hung across his eyes, shades of green. His mother had told him to get it cut before going off ton a mission with her team, but that was several months ago, and Peter hadn't yet taken the initiative. She was a marine biologist, and as such, wasn't home often, leaving Peter and his father to repossess in her absence.

His netnavi lurked in the store's finance section, begrudgingly working his way through the ledgers. Normally this was Kyra's task, but with her out with SH, the duty fell to him. The navi's form was a bit unorthodox, taking the form of a blue orb with a face on it, and several other orbs of blue and yellow that rotated about him like a maelstrom, and contained the scalpels and blades that gave him his name: Surgeonman.

Peter was nearly ready to doze off. No one had come in all day, and he still needed to keep the store open another three or four hours. His eyes closed, and he wondered what his father was doing at this moment, preparing himself to imagine an adventure with the Chaos Union.

Unfortunately, preparing was as far as he got, before a man wearing sunglasses thrust the door open. He wore a dark cloak about him, and Peter quickly made the assumption that it was a disguise of some sort; no one would be wearing a cloak like that today, even with the afternoon drawing to a close. He lowered the sunglasses a moment, and then readjusted them and stepped up to the counter. Bad vision in darkness, or just a gesture implying social precedence?

"I hear you're the best people to go to if you're looking for someone," the man said, leaning up on the desktop. "Was I correct in my assumption?"

Peter quickly sat up, his feet slamming to the floor alongside the chair's groans of protest. "Yes, sir! Hurr Repossession Agency is at your service!" The teenager crossed his fingers in front of him in imitation of his father's stance during deals, and waited for a name.

"Excellent," the man said, removing his sunglasses to reveal piercing blue eyes. "I need you to find Shroud Taruka."

Peter smiled greedily, and turned his head to the monitor beside him. "Surgeonman, bring up those payment forms for our friend. The expensive ones."


	6. Tempests of Understanding

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Megaman Battle Network or any of its related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the emotional property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note**: Well, no reviews...but some of you are responding on the forum, so that's okay. Please tell others about this fanfic, though. Very sorry that this is a day late, but the soonest I would have been able to finish was around midnight, so I figured I'd just wait until I was fully awake to finish the flashback. Enjoy!

-

_Shroud walked over to stand by Matthias and Irine, who were looking at the wreckage of the CU headquarters. The base had recently been attacked by their old foe, Master Shadow, whom they had thought deleted in their last battle with him. Matthias had been wounded in the struggle, a side-effect of his navi's deletion in Cross Fusion. He was fine, after having recieved some effective first aid from Irine and a day or two of recovery. But he hadn't gotten a new netnavi yet, and Shroud could only assume that he had been scarred more than it seemed._

_Matthias and Irine turned their heads from the base as he approached. "Hey, Shroud," Irine said, her face brightening as she saw him. Matthias gave him a slight smile and a nod; his co-leader had been unusually stoic in the past few days. Shroud could understand the feeling. His netnavi had been deleted as well, and if it wasn't for the fact that his data had soon reformed somehow as his new navi Cloud, he'd be at least as upset as Matthias was._

_As soon as the proper pleasantries had been established, Shroud looked over at the base. A group of Copyroids had nearly finished the infrastructure, and once the lobby had been fully restored, Matthias could reboot the computer system, Jazz. After that, all one would have to do is edit the building plans, and the metal in the building itself would change to adapt the new plans. But having the Copyroids here would be a great help, making sure that it was done faster._

_"Have you met our mysterious benefactor yet?" Matthias asked, looking over at the 20-year old that was supervising the Copyroids. Shroud had to admit that he hadn't. This SH was still an enigma to him, but he had heard a few things about him via e-mail correspondence with the remainder of the Chaos Union. The odd computer system fused into the side of his neck was present, as was his penchant for wearing gray shorts and a t-shirt, despite the chilly winds that the day was bringing._

_The personage in question soon walked over once he saw Shroud, and greeted him. "So you're the leader of this Chaos Union I've been hearing about?" he asked._

_"Yes, sir," Shroud said, trying to decide whether to deal with SH as if he was a teen, or an adult. SH decided it for him._

_"Oh no, I think you're mispronouncing SH. It's more of an ess-aych than a sur." Everyone cracked a smile at that, even Matthias._

_"All right then, SH. Now, we're going to need to discuss payment. The team and I have several monetary resources at our disposal, but we'll definitely have to pay in..."_

_"Hey, hey, slow down. I don't take money for anything like this. I'm solely a Repossession Agent. I'm just testing the capabilities of these things. The fact that your Chaos Union needed a base was just a coincidence. That, and I was curious as to whether you're still taking on members."_

_Shroud smiled. "Of course. It'll be a pleasure, SH."_

_"I would certainly hope so," he replied, taking Shroud's hand in a handshake._

_-_

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 5:** Procellae Intellectus_

-

-- 5: 39 PM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

The Chaos Union silently made their way through the damp tunnels. They were several hundred feet below the Twilight Desert, and even with evening slowly approaching, it was hard to believe that such an oasis could truly exist. The tunnel they were currently walking down was fairly cylindrical, about ten feet in diameter, which gave a majority of the smaller members room to walk side-by-side while those who had larger forms in Cross Fusion walked single-file.

Shroud was one of the larger ones. Granted, he was nowhere near as tall as Juno was in his full form, but even with his wings folded, it would be a tight fit to squeeze anyone in beside him. He led the group down the tunnel, and looked behind him to make sure everyone was still behind him. They were, and Shroud returned his attentions to the path before them, thinking back to the moment they'd arrived in this cavern.

He'd been the last to drop into the dank caverns, after having somewhat of a heart to heart with Matthias. It had taken him a long time to notice Matthias' attraction to Irine, but after he did, it had made interactions between them…difficult. Shroud could see that Matthias had gotten over the infatuation, especially after he started dating Alysse, but Shroud had always been able to sense the "what if?" he silently harbored. He'd almost forgotten over the years. Then again, he'd had worse to worry about.

At any rate, he'd dropped into the middle of a tunnel exactly as wide as this one, leading in two directions. For a few minutes, the group was unsure of which way to go, until SH had informed them that if they'd be quiet for five seconds, he'd be able to hear if there was anyone alive down here. They were, and several moments later, SH reported hearing something faint coming from his left. Luckily, that happened to be in the direction Shroud was facing, and they all decided to head that way so they didn't need to shuffle themselves around. Now Shroud wasn't nearly as sure. They hadn't found anything yet, and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was nonexistent, save for that faint glow around the corner…

Shroud's eyes opened wide and he ran ahead, the others startled. Of course, they couldn't really see the light until after Shroud had taken a few steps, at which point they quickly followed him as well. Shroud reached the corner, turned around it, and came to the edge of a cliff, which he promptly stepped off the edge of. Luckily, he had wings, but he had to quickly catch Raymond's nephew as he stepped off as well. The others managed to see the edge in time, and quickly found the rope ladder that bridged the gap between the tunnel and the cavern below.

"Thanks for saving me, Mr. Taruka," Alistor said, a bit out of breath.

Shroud was a bit more so, the boy's Cross Fused form was heavy. "It's Shroud, Alistor. You're not allowed to call anyone Mister after they've saved your life." Shroud looked down as he descended, a bit surprised at the sight below. Somehow, water had collected in this cavernous basin, and formed a lake, which looked quite deep from first glance. Above the edge was a wooden pier, which led to a metal walkway, which in turn led to the deck of a submarine, of all things. As he landed upon the ground, Shroud noted the metal doors faintly visible in the lake below, faintly surmising that they led to the ocean, and therefore that they must be near the coast.

As Alistor stepped away and began to brush his armor off, Shroud looked over at the others, descending the rope ladder. Golex was the first one down, already heading over to talk to Alistor, and Brian was flying down right above him. Link and SH were currently descending the ladder, and the last two were at the top, waiting for enough space between people to start down. He thought that he'd counted wrong for a minute, but then remembered that he'd sent Chris and Pavo home, and that there were only seven of them now…and he'd forgotten to add Alistor into the count!

"Matthias, behind you!" His second-in-command twirled to face the figure, and Shroud was able to faintly see a look of surprise on his face as their guest attempted to run back through the tunnel. Matthias quickly pursued, and returned moments later, as SH touched the ground.

"Come on, hurry up," Matthias said, his captive reluctantly going down the rope ladder. Shroud wasn't sure this course of action was best, and flew towards the ladder to tell Matthias so before the spy got too far. As he got closer, he was able to determine that the figure was a girl, and a young one at that. She looked familiar, and Shroud was trying to recall where he'd seen her when she turned her head to look behind her, and a shaft of faint light spread across the face of his daughter.

Startled, Shroud floated back down to the ground, and crossed his arms in front of him. He couldn't believe that she'd found a way to get here. While he was a bit impressed with her natural talent for espionage, he also planned to ground her when he got home. Again.

Seija began to talk to her father the instant her feet touched the deck, walking over to him quickly. "Daddy, I'm really sorry, but I just wanted an adventure, like you had when you were my age. And I left an e-mail for Mom so she wouldn't worry, and--"

"What were you thinking?" The words came out a bit harsher than he had intended, but he managed to keep himself from shouting. After all, there was no way to get her back home at this point, so he had to make sure she remained civil towards them, at the very least. "How did you get here, anyways?"

"You left your mission plans out overnight, and in the morning, when I was packing to run away, I saw them there. I knew you'd have to go to the Southern Outpost, so I snuck in and waited for you to show up. Sure enough, you were there, and I just snuck onto your ship after you all boarded. Then, when it started to leave, I got out quickly and followed you down the tunnel." Seija seemed a bit proud of herself, and Shroud couldn't really blame her. His daughter was much more intelligent than he gave her credit for, and he knew that she was smart to begin with.

"That's no excuse. You could have put us all in danger." Shroud uncrossed his arms, but continued to glare at his daughter, although with a bit less anger than before.

"I'm sorry, Daddy. Can I help you on your mission now?"

Shroud sighed. "Seija, you should go back up to the surface. We'll probably need to blow up this submarine, and you might get hurt if you're down here when we do so."

"Shroud, you can't blow up the submarine."

Shroud looked towards the voice in surprise, and realized that it belonged to Matthias, who was walking towards the group. "What? Why not?"

"Because that's what Fefnir told me on the ship. X wants the Vile 5 to think that he still doesn't know anything."

Shroud looked at Matthias incredulously. "Well, that pretty much ruined our day."

-- 5: 44 PM, Forgotten Outskirts, DenNet, CyberNet --

Surgeonman floated about the area, looking at all of the desolation around him. He currently hovered in the middle of what had once been one of the major plazas of Net City, the urban paradise of the CyberNet. A fountain had sprayed water into the air, and decorative hedges and sculptures of brave netnavis ringed the patio, along with benches for netnavis to sit in. It had been among the more beautiful areas in the city. That was over 15 years ago.

Now, that same plaza was in ruins, as was the remainder of what was once Net City. Now known by either its original name of DenNet, the Fallen City, or, for the lingually impaired, N3t Cit33, it was a corrupted realm reigned over by Darkloids, corrupted netnavis fueled by evil. Only one place in the entire server was safe from their darkness, and that was known as Freedom Square. Unfortunately for Surgeonman, the plaza he floated in was not called Freedom Square.

Still, the amorphous netnavi cared little about what might attack him, and began to utilize the Repair and Panel Return chips that he had brought with him to this desolate place. Around him, several pieces of his appendages swirled, sharp blades extended to beat back any viruses that assaulted him. The chips weren't as effective as they could have been, only normalizing the panels instead of restoring them, but it was progress. Eventually, if enough of the darkness was kept from leeching onto the new panels, they could be reformatted, and the city could be rebuilt.

Unfortunately, few people or netnavis cared enough about the Fallen City to help with the thankless task. Most people never even bothered to visit DenNet any longer, and those that did never wanted to leave Freedom Square, and do some good. Granted, Surgeonman wasn't doing it because it was good, either. He just wanted the zenny.

As he worked, a small, two-dimensional window appeared at his side, and his head swiveled to look at his NetOp. "Hello, Peter. How did your negotiations with our client go?"

Through the window, which linked to Peter's webcam, Surgeonman could see his partner frown. "Not as well as expected. He's paid the fee for us to find him ourselves, but insisted on doing the job himself. And with our…personal interest in this matter at stake, I felt that I needed to contact my father with the information. I'm sending him an email now."

Surgeonman was surprised, but managed to keep his features smooth. The only sign that he was rattled was that his appendages twitched a bit, and searched a bit more frantically for viruses to delete, but Peter couldn't see that. "Are you sure that's wise? It's a breach of our contract to notify a target or any of their accessories that they're being targeted. You know that."

"I understand, Surgeonman, but my father knows what he's doing. He made his former CU status public years ago, and he plans on pretending that Shroud has him under mind control, if he has to. He's already laid out the plans for the device, and I'm supposed to start working on it. If it comes down to protecting Shroud or himself, I'm sure that he'll choose to save himself, despite any friendly feelings he may have towards Shroud. The precautions he's already made allow me to take my own, and I don't plan on stepping out of the boundaries of the law."

Surgeonman nodded, (or rather, rolled his cerebral sphere up and down, if you'd like to be specific) and prepared to say something more when a dark tendril slashed through the screen, sending static through it a millisecond before another sliced through, dissipating it. As the screen faded, a female navi was seen beyond; writhing threads of shadow beating back his appendages.

The navi was visibly corrupted by darkness, and her burgundy bodysuit was partially corroded, revealing the data within her frame. A pair of black ribbons extended from her helmet, and the icon emblazoned in the center of her chest was a blood red circle, with a jagged black triangle pointing downwards at the top. A black ponytail could be seen behind her, and she had long nails, which began to extend themselves as he watched.

"Hello, my dear. My name is Malice. Would you like to play?" Her nails now a foot long, and dangerously sharp, she lunged at Surgeonman with her claws outstretched and glinting in the pale light.

-- 5: 46 PM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias and Shroud sat across from each other, in a small building upon the deck. They were inside some sort of station, presumably meant for guards to watch to make sure that no one entered the caverns. Obviously, the Vile 5 hadn't had either the men or the desire to utilize it. It consisted of three rooms, a sitting room, where the remainder of the group sat, the conference room, where the two of them were now sitting, and a communications room, where one could watch the cavern and inside of the submarine…if it hadn't been disabled. Depressing to know their enemies had at least a little bit of foresight.

"So, as I was saying, this needs to be even more secret than we already planned. The general idea going into this was that we sneak in, find out what they're planning, and get rid of them altogether if possible. But that won't work, because I think that X wants the Vile 5 to attack and reveal themselves." Matthias looked intently at Shroud while he spoke. While his leader didn't have any of the information Fefnir had told him earlier today, Matthias didn't have any idea of X's reasons for giving the order. That was what he was hoping Shroud could tell him.

"That almost makes sense," Shroud replied. Good. It was nice to know that someone understood this. "If we find out their plan, and they don't know we've found out their plan, then we know exactly how to stop their plan, or turn it to our advantage. My best guess is that X wants it to appear that the Vile 5 are a threat to the entire world, not just Neo Arcadia. And if he gets the entire world to turn on them, it just makes global peace that much easier."

"Well, I'm glad you could make sense of it, at least." Matthias checked his watch, mentally calculating the amount of time they had been inside this cavern. "We'd best decide who's going into the sub. You, Alistor, and Link are out for sure, because of your larger size in Cross Fusion, so it looks like the rest of us are going in."

Shroud shook his head. "We don't need everyone to go in. Perhaps just you and…"

"Why, I'd be willing to go, Shroud."

Matthias and Shroud turned their heads to see SH standing in the doorway. Matthias looked over at Shroud in his peripheral, seeing an expression on his face that seemed to match his own thoughts: How long has SH been there?

"Well, then," Shroud said as he got to his feet, "I guess the two of you will go then. But you'll have to be careful." Matthias raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Shroud quizzically. There was something that their leader wasn't telling him, and something told him that it had to do with SH.

"Of course. But I have some troubling news. My son just e-mailed me from the office. Someone's looking for you, Shroud."

"What? Who?" Shroud asked. Matthias nearly answered his question, with the ONB, but something didn't add up. Shroud was one of X's more prominent advisors, and presumably, every nation in the world knew that he was there. Therefore, it didn't make any sense for the ONB to be hunting him down, at least not through vigilante channels, and Matthias said as much.

"It must be someone else, Shroud," he continued. "An old enemy, perhaps?"

Steve shook his head. "I've already checked. All of our former foes are either behind bars or dead, save your brother, Matthias. I can't see him contacting me to hunt Shroud."

"Neither can I," Shroud responded, "but we don't have time to worry about this anyhow. The two of you need to Cross Fuse and get into that submarine before it's too late. Hurry." Matthias and SH nodded and left, Matthias snagging his PET off the counter as he went.

"Shroud doesn't trust me, does he?" Steve asked after they had left the building. Matthias looked at him in shock. SH always was quick to get to the point. "He's not the most subtle person ever. And it's not just me; it's Chris and Golex as well, because we arrived late. Correct?"

To be honest, Matthias wasn't sure. But SH disliked vagueness. Absolutes were easier to work with. "Yes, I believe so. He hasn't verbalized anything to me, but I think that I can still read his body language." SH nodded and slotted his Synchro Chip into his PET.

"I shall have to prove him wrong then," he said as his gray armor began to spread along his body. Matthias nodded in agreement as his own blue armor began to spread along his body, and the two of them simultaneously broke into a smooth run, heading towards the submarine.

-- 5: 49 PM, Forgotten Outskirts, DenNet, CyberNet --

Surgeonman rolled aside from Malice again as her thin ribbons of darkness were sliced apart by his appendages. There was a certain advantage to having your body made up of spheres. It made it easier to dodge attacks. The only disadvantage was that all anyone had to do was severely damage his cerebral sphere and he'd be down for the count. Therefore, it was very important that he defeated this Malice quickly before she figured that out.

The Darkloid herself was in a crouched position, her nails still in their extended form. She watched him closely as his appendages sliced at her tendrils of darkness, and seemed to be carefully noting whether they had any effect on the spheres. Apparently making her decision, she snapped her fingers, and the tendrils moved as one, darting at Surgeonman.

Yet he was prepared, and rolled backwards as his appendages moved to protect him, forming a wall to block the darkness. While the move was effective, Surgeonman could see that the blows had corrupted several of his appendages, and he recalled them, causing them to take the form of two arms and two legs.

"What do you want of me? I have done nothing to you or any other of darkness." His blades all extended as he spoke, those at the ends of his limbs appearing to be more sword-like than the others, which protruded like needles.

"You are attempting to restore our lands. That cannot be permitted." Malice shrunk her nails back to their normal size, and crossed her arms over each other. "If you will leave, and never attempt to restore this server again, I will not delete you. But I have done so to others before you, and I will do so again if I must."

Surgeonman stood there, looking at her a moment. It would be much easier to just surrender. But then again, there was that reward to consider. "Sorry, Malice, but it looks like you'll have to delete me." With that, he quickly used her surprise to cleanse several panels, and she screeched with rage.

"Little boy, you've made a terrible mistake!" Her nails elongated themselves again, and Surgeonman prepared himself to break apart when she charged, but she dug them into the panels instead, a dark blight seeping from her fingers. Surgeonman suddenly realized that he might have made a miscalculation, as the darkness spreading from her fingers was much blacker than the darkness that had existed beforehand. He might have actually made the situation worse.

He retaliated, applying Panel Returns and Repairs as fast as he could upload them, but it barely made any difference. Every time he seemed to be making headway, Malice chuckled a bit to herself, and sharp tendrils of darkness launched forth from the panels he had just gained. She was using Panel Revenge alongside her darkness, and he couldn't fight it for long.

With the last of his strength, Surgeonman seemed to explode, his body vanishing amidst the blades that had been encased within his body. Malice only had time to look up before the blades pierced her, sending her flying into a wall, which she was pinned against. The pain she could take, but not while remaining conscious. As she passed out, small blue and gold fragments scattered about the plaza began to dematerialize.

-

Malice slowly awoke, faintly feeling pain of some sort. She looked around, to discover that she was both pinned to a wall by scalpels and that Surgeonman was gone. Good to know that, even if it did mean that she had to be pincushioned to achieve the goal. Her superiors had been adamant that he be stopped, as the highest of Darkloids had begun to put pressure on their clan, to ensure that their holdings were secure.

Malice gritted her teeth and allowed her dark powers to seep through the blades, causing them to break apart and dropping her to the ground. "Light of heaven, that hurts," she muttered to herself. She could only remember being hurt in such a way once, when she had been torn from her body, and been corrupted by darkness. Her master had told her later that he had never seen someone who required so much energy to be turned. Unfortunately, she had never been a strong navi, and the darkness within her only increased the amount she was able to draw, making her useful, but not powerful.

She knelt there, on her hands and knees a moment, until she gathered the strength to open her eyes. As she looked upon the panels below, her mouth opened wide, and she struggled to her feet. Where before the plaza had been corrupted with darkness, and growing slowly as black as night, now it was nothing more than a thin sheet of glass, through which Malice could see the very fabric of the server. It had not been purified, true, but Malice had never expected Surgeonman to accomplish that. One could only do so much when they were of Balance.

Yet somehow, he'd managed to cleanse it perfectly, wiping the data completely from the server. The Darkloids could reformat it, if they could get a member into Dentown's Central Computer System, but that would take time. Until then, it was useless to them, and Malice knew her leaders would not like that.

She looked through the glass several minutes more, until she felt her master call. He would surely wish to know the results. Malice wasn't looking forward to telling him what had occurred. With a deliberate, yet unsteady stride, she walked through a shadow, vanishing completely.

-- 5: 50 PM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias crept along the passageway of the submarine, beckoning his companion Steve to follow him. The two of them hadn't encountered any opposition yet, which seemed odd, but Matthias was never one to question good fortune.

As Steve got closer to him, a paper crane flew around the corner, and he caught it, listening as it faintly chirped in his ear. "Hall's clear, and there's voices coming from the third door on the left. Shall we listen at the door, or try the ventilation?"

"Let's take the door. We can't risk getting stuck in a shaft." SH nodded and crumpled the crane in his hand, moving beside Matthias to the door. When they reached it, SH pulled out a pair of ear buds, and Matthias stuck the plug into the door's keyhole, electrically charging it to allow sound to carry. Once the faint sound of voices was heard, they each took a plug, inserting it into one of their ears.

-

The Vile 5 sat around a circular table, discussing their plans. The room was scarcely lit, making it nearly impossible for each other's faces to be seen…exactly the way that they liked it.

"Now, in summary," their only female member, Dr. Lumina said, "we are going to destroy Neo Arcadia's capital city, blame it on the Netopians, and then spur their Sharoan allies to attack Netopia, correct?"

"Exactly, Lumina. After Netopia and Sharo have gone to war, Electopia will surely ally themselves with Netopia, and we can presumably get Nation Z to supply troops to Sharo, presuming Alto is still malleable to your…persuasion." This member was known as Dr. Weil, and he was Omega's NetOp. He still believed his navi under his control, and therefore thought nothing of Omega's recording of the meeting. That would probably cost him later on.

"But it would be much easier to highjack a Sharo satellite." This next speaker was Dr. Gate, a specialist in Copyroid development that had made it possible for Neo Arcadia to supply the devices, at cheap prices. He was not known for his foresight, but was an extraordinary inventor. "Couldn't we simply focus on removing Neo Arcadia? After all, that's our general purpose."

"You're too short-sighted, Gate. A majority of the Arcadians will survive the attack, if only because they were on the Net. They'll just rebuild over the ashes if we do nothing more than destroy their city." Dr. Doppler, on the other hand, had an extraordinary sense of seeing hidden patterns, although this was hampered by the fact that he bordered on insanity. He had lost both of his arms up to the elbow in an industrial accident years before, and the agony of having his new robotic limbs surgically implanted was enough to push him right to the edge of sanity, if not over. The advantage to this, of course, was that his two netnavis, Bit and Byte, could both reside within them, and it eliminated the need for PETs.

"The fact of the matter is, we can't do anything until the treaty with Sharo is signed." Dr. Cain, the leader of their group, was completely hidden in darkness, and nothing could be seen of him. Still, his voice seemed to give one a mental picture of him: cold and caustic. "So, even if one or two of the Chaos Union members inside the cavern do survive, it won't matter, because X has to sign it, or risk decimation." Cain leaned closer to the microphone in the middle of the table, revealing a face that seemed old, yet youthful in passion. "Hear that, my friends inside the submarine? We're not here, and you're about to die."

Cain laughed as he watched the camera's field of view above, laughing at the frantic panic of Matthias and SH to escape their demise.


	7. Fiery Courage, Cold Strength

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Megaman or any related concepts. Capcom does. All remaining characters and ideas are the material properties of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Late again, but it's finally here. I also have come to a new agreement with my muse: after any major plot point (the satellite crash is one example), I'll take a week's break to let it recharge and crank out more chapters. Agreed? If not, review and say why. Or, just review. Enjoy!

-

_Jules Guidry walked slowly through the streets of Dreg City, capital of Nation Z. He hadn't been here much as a child, despite its proximity to Swampopolis. Now he could see why. The city was falling apart, and being bombed nightly by Electopia didn't help matters much. He was here to see if there was a way to finish this conflict quickly, so the bombing would stop and Electopia would be victorious. Tall order for a fifteen-year-old._

_He had always found it odd that he was trusted to save the world, but he wasn't allowed to drive a car. Bureaucracy was a strange entity, it seemed. Still, if he made it out of here alive, his permit test was scheduled for next week. Something to look forward to. Now it was just a matter of finding the people he needed to, and taking them into custody._

_He felt the small copyroid nestled within one of the pockets of his oversized gray jacket for a moment, ensuring that it was still there. Being only a B-License ONB, he wasn't able to gain a Synchro Chip, so this somewhat-illegal device in his pocket was his only protection in this foreign city. If the ONB had their way, he wouldn't have one at all, and just imagine what a situation that would put him in._

_He stopped under a street lamp, cautiously looking around. No one was visible to him, but that didn't mean that no one was there. Especially not in a city such as this, where secrecy was the order of the day. He hoped that his contact would arrive soon. The skies looked as if rain would cascade down from them any minute now._

_"Might you have the time?" The voice came from behind, and Jules turned slowly to face the speaker. He had come from nowhere, as most native to Nation Z were prone to do, and a dark cloak shrouded his face._

_Jules pulled the sleeve of his jacket away to reveal his digital watch, once a staple of his daily apparel. He now more commonly wore a more precious watch, but he could not risk anyone seeing him for what he was. He checked the time to see that it was only 3:30, despite the darkening of the clouds above. "7: 10," he responded._

_"Too late for hunting."_

_"That depends on your quarry." The proper exchanges delivered, the stranger lowered his hood, revealing a man with black and gray hair, who appeared a decade or so past his middle years. He adjusted the glasses he wore as he looked Jules over._

_"I am not sure if we have met before. There were too many faces to recall in the chaos some time past that was Atos. But I think perhaps...yes, I am fairly sure--you are Chaos Fox, the one known as J.G?"_

_Jules nodded. J.G. was the name he had given to Shroud upon joining the Chaos Union, and it was the name he intended to keep within the mind of his father. "You are correct, Dr. Taruka. But did your sons not tell you who you would be meeting with, despite these formalities?"_

_The doctor of cybernetics shook his head, with a sad look in his eyes. "I have not heard from either of my sons in several days. I fear that they have been captured, or worse."_

_"I wouldn't worry about them. Shroud and Shade have been thought dead numerous times, and they always have a strange way of--" A flurry of motion caught Jules' eye, and he turned in time to see a soldier stepping into the light of the lamp, pointing a gun at them. "Down!" he cried, knocking Dr. Taruka to the sidewalk, as the gun and the heavens released their payload with a pair of explosions, one of fire and one of thunder. The bullet skimmed over their heads, but the rains drenched them in an instant, and blurred his vision._

_"I never liked water," the fiery teenager said, reaching into his pocket for his copyroid and recieving only the scalding burn of a spark. It didn't appear that they'd see this rain stop, then. Jules could only watch as the assassin sent to kill them came closer, and then fell to the ground, a pair of figures taking form behind them. Yet Jules recognized them, and got to his feet as they entered the light, lifting the unconsious Dr. Taruka with him. "It seems that your father couldn't take the excitement," he said, walking towards the brothers Taruka._

_Shroud had taken on the armor of his netnavi Juno via Cross Fusion, and looked to be regretting it in this rain. His pair of ivory wings were tucked firmly against his armor, and his normally-gleaming armor of gold and silver looked almost tarnished, although Jules knew that Shroud would never allow such a travesty to occur. Shade, on the other hand, had a more practical form in Cross Fusion, a long red coat covering a majority of his body. The trademark broadsword of his netnavi Auron was tied to his back, and he stepped forward to take his father out of Jules' arms. "We really need to invest in getting the rest of you ONB up to S-License," Shade said with only a hint of jest. "Either that, or just steal one, like I did."_

_Shroud and Jules both shook their heads and smiled. "Did you contact the targets?" Jules asked._

_"Yes. And of course, they double-crossed us exactly as we suspected, telling us to come to a meeting place and then blowing up said meeting place. Them thinking we were dead just made infiltrating their missile bases that much easier. Nation Z won't be performing many military acts for quite some time." As he spoke, Shroud shifted out of Cross Fusion, although Shade remained in his fused state, since it wasn't nearly as out of the ordinary as his brother's was._

_A few minutes later, they were on their way to the airfield where the remainder of their team would swoop in to escort them out of the country. A thought came to Jules all of a sudden, and he looked over at Shroud. "No regrets? This is your homeland, you know. You've basically just kept them from doing anything to the world, useful or not, for the next two decades or so."_

_Shroud sighed and looked at Jules, not without a bit of sadness. "Nation Z hasn't been a home to me since I was seven, old friend. I would cripple them like this again in a heartbeat."_

_"Good," Jules said, with mixed emotions. "I'm glad that someone would."_

-

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 6: **Fervida Ferocitas, Alsius Fortitudo_

-_  
_

-- 5:51 PM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia ---

Shroud had a bad feeling about this mission. Something just wasn't right. But he couldn't really do anything but trust Matthias at this point. That, and play a game of poker with the others to pass the time.

Looking at his hand in distaste, Seija tossed three chips into the central pot. Golex and Link shared a devious look, and the former raised seven while the latter called his bet. Obviously, the two of them believed that Shroud's daughter was bluffing. Shroud suspected they were right, so he decided to call the bet, putting in ten chips of his own. Brian and Alistor did the same, and then Seija resentfully added seven chips.

This completed, the group went about the circle, exchanging cards. Golex had dealt, so he gave Link two cards before turning to Shroud. He took a good look at his cards, seeing he had a seven, eight, nine, Jack, and Ace; all hearts, as improbable as it seemed. It was a good hand in itself, but the potential for a straight flush was too great for him to pass up. After all, it wasn't like the world was at stake over his one bet.

Turning in the Ace, Shroud was scarcely able to contain his joy at actually seeing a ten of hearts, and looked out the window at the submarine. "We should have tried to jury-rig some sort of transceiver from that communications room before they left. At least then we'd know if they ran into any trouble."

Brian shrugged as he turned in three cards. "We couldn't risk any communication between us being heard, and they left too fast anyways. I'm sure that they're fine." Alistor nodded his ascent as well, taking his two. Seija chose to do nothing, setting her head on the table. Golex smirked at this, and took three cards of his own. The betting then continued, Link starting with 25 chips, and the rest simply calling.

Link then showed first, having only three sixes, which Shroud promptly beat with his straight flush. Alistor and Brian sighed and put their cards down, and all eyes turned to Golex, who began to turn his cards over. "Ahem." Everyone looked at Seija, whose cards were overturned to reveal another straight flush, this one of spades, with a Queen high. "I never folded, so I guess I win."

Shroud began to laugh as Link and Golex turned crimson with anger, but the subsequent rumblings of the cavern cut them off. "Outside. Now." The team hurried through the doors, Shroud standing next to Seija in an instant.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure, Seija." Shroud looked around as he exited the room, and came to the quick conclusion that something had gone wrong, and his conclusions seemed to be proven right as a stalactite fell almost at their feet. "Cross Fuse, now!" The Chaos Union did so without thought; years of following Shroud's orders had made doing so routine by now. As they all took on their netnavis forms, Shroud spread his large wings, shielding his daughter from anything that might fall from above.

"Seija, stay with me, all right?" His daughter nodded, and then Shroud looked around the room. The entrance they had come through had been sealed by steel blast doors, and they didn't look like they'd open without a great deal of force, perhaps more than they could muster. Of all the times for them to be trapped underground, it was when they'd just managed to discover an attack that could probably drive a hole through the ceiling.

"Everyone, listen! This chamber is probably the only thing that's collapsing. My best guess is that there is an extra stone ceiling built into this cavern, and what the ceiling is now is just going to fall on top of us. Therefore, our only chance of escaping is to drill our way through that door." The team got the message, and Link led off the strike, firing several golden arrows into the door, and scarcely marring it. Apparently, the Vile 5 had prepared for this and made this door from something a bit stronger than steel. He didn't have time to discover what it was.

The others quickly followed Link's lead, Golex shooting something out of his sword that caused large explosions as Alistor fired shockwaves from his own swords. Their efforts proved futile as well, although faint marks could be seen upon the metal surface. Brian tossed several of his grenades at the surface, and when the smoke cleared and Shroud began to fire some shockwaves at the door, he could see that they were making progress. But it was too little, too late.

A faint snapping noise was heard as another large rock fell, missing Brian by a foot, and Shroud looked up to see a large net of some unknown metal above, straining to hold up the rocks that embodied the ceiling. As he watched, carefully placed torches began to ignite, and the strands touched by that murderous fire began to snap, dropping their burden. Another rock splashed into the water, and then Shroud heard another snap, and sadly looked at the others.

"I'm sorry," he said to them as the net above them broke, dropping the lethal ceiling down upon them.

-- Sunday, March 30th, 7: 18 AM, X's Office, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

"I'm sorry, but we haven't been able to contact Shroud and the others, nor reach them. I fear they may no longer be with us."

Chris sighed as X spoke. Shroud and the remainder of the team had been AWOL for over 12 hours, and search teams back at the crater had found nothing. They had apparently descended into some sort of tunneling systems, but found only dead ends, one in the form of a solid stone wall, the other in the form of a steel blast door that no one had been able to open as of yet. The general consensus was that the team had entered a chamber through the steel doors, and then killed, by any of various means.

"They can't be dead," Pavo said vehemently, his netnavi nodding vigorously on his shoulder. "It's Shroud. He always finds ways to escape death."

"I'm afraid that appears to be the case, for him and the remainder of your team." X seemed saddened by the news, but he was a diplomat, and Chris suspected that he held Shroud's sacrifice in less regard that it appeared, especially since no information had been brought back about the Vile 5. "If you need any accommodations, please consult with my staff. Our nation's hospitality is yours to receive."

Chris and Pavo reluctantly bowed at the subtle dismissal, and then left the room, heading to the elevator. They got into it in silence, but after the doors closed, Pavo began to speak. "What are we going to do, Chris? X said that he would inform Irine in due time, but maybe we should--"

Chris raised a finger to his lips as Pavo spoke, and with his other hand, he pointed upwards at the camera above his head. Currently, he was out of its field of vision, and it was unlikely to have audio capabilities, but X surely had employees who could read lips, so Pavo had to be silent for now if they were ever going to escape this diplomatic nightmare. Mercifully, Pavo was silent, leaning against the wall in silent contemplation.

With this task finished, Chris leaned up against the wall as well, feeling the two Synchro Chips in his pocket. Last night, when they had turned in their Synchro Chips at the Southern Outpost, Chris had automatically checked to see where they were being put, a habit formed from his time at Setan. It had proven to be useful this evening, because as soon as he and Pavo had been informed that the Chaos Union was missing in action, he'd snuck out of their hotel room, and returned to the Outpost, taking advantage of the confusion to gain a new pair of chips.

He unconsciously fingered the silver pendant around his neck as he thought of the Academy, bringing it into the light enough to allow the glow of the florescent bulbs above to shine upon it. Its form was unmistakable, a serpentine dragon curled about a jagged dagger, but its meaning was hidden, even to those who knew of the Academy. The tattoo was standard upon graduation, but the Chain of Argent was something unique. Something Chris had sworn never to speak of.

The ding of the elevator lifted him from his reverie, and he looked up to see Pavo eying the Chain with confusion. He'd have to give him the basics later, but for now, they needed to do what was required. He led the way out of the cubicle, Pavo temporarily deferring to him, and exited the Core Building, completely ignoring the aide who attempted to flag them down. As Pavo saw him reach for his radio, he whispered to Chris, "What are we doing? We're obviously supposed to talk to him."

"I know," Chris replied, pulling the hood of his black coat over his head. "That's exactly why we're doing it." He walked through the revolving doors, and took a quick glance behind to check on the progress of the guard and catch Pavo's eye. Then, he broke into a run, dashing down the main street and not looking back.

-- 8: 41 AM, Feedback Plaza, Electown, Electopia --

The sun slipped behind a cloud as Luke pondered the game before him. It was Sunday, and every Sunday possible, he and John met here and played a game or two of chess, and simply discussed life. This week, Luke had called another friend over as well, whose name was Alan, and he had pulled a chair up alongside the two of them. Alan was a year younger than either of them was, but was taking the same classes. He had mousy brown hair and wore either rectangular glasses or contacts, whatever suited his mood. Today, he had chosen glasses, and was wearing a brown t-shirt with the words "Each your station are own to we", in honor of the cult phenomenon that was currently sweeping the globe.

Currently, he held Luke's PET in his hands, and was scanning through the Project: Fallen documents. "Well, this is certainly a very elaborate program," he said finally, as John moved one of his white progs forward two spaces. "It seems to have overwritten Aeon's weaponry systems in some way, but it's left his glaive intact for some reason." Alan's father was a netnavi programmer, and he was following in his footsteps. Luke had called him this morning, hoping that he could be of some aid, and he had been helpful so far.

"There's some sort of change in it, though," Luke said as he slid a proxy diagonally across the board, putting John's firewall in jeopardy. His friend quickly responded by sliding his firewall towards a black virus, and Luke was forced to move that elsewhere, ruining a plan he had begun to formulate. "It's more of a focal point now, and energy flows through it more easily."

"Yes, I see that," Alan replied. "I believe that your new Fallen are going to be summoned through the energies that the glaive currently possesses, and the modifications are just to make the summoning go smoother. Other than that, nothing else is different."

"All right, thanks for your help, Alan."

"You know, you could just ask your father about the program, Luke," Alan said. "He's the one who made it."

Luke looked over at John, who gave him a look of understanding. John was the only person that Luke had told of his Chaos Union heritage, and he seemed to understand why Luke wasn't telling anyone else. The Chaos Union was a great team, sure, but they still had enemies, and he had enough trouble without vicious criminals attacking. Besides, his father had lied to him before. What was to say that he wouldn't lie about this secret project of his?

"Maybe I will," he said aloud, his unspoken conversation with John having taken only seconds. Alan didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, looking at the specs one last time.

"Luke, would you mind if I made a copy of this?" he asked hesitantly, loading up the data transfer function on his own PET.

Luke had to think about it a moment. Obviously, his father had wanted the program kept secret, but he thought he could trust Alan. But it really was who Alan could trust that might pose problems. "Why?" he asked, sticking with a non-answer.

"Well, there's a kid I know, who might be able to get a better idea about the program's purpose. He's the best programmer I've ever met, including my father, although you didn't hear that from me. He might see something I can't. Apparently, he just got into town a few days ago, and he's staying at the local hotel."

"Well then, I'll just see if I can contact him myself, considering my dad told me to use the hotel's security for hacking practice. I'll leave him a message later today; maybe send the plans along with." Looking back down at the board in front of him, he saw that John had moved his navi to put Luke's operator in check. As he did so, Luke suddenly noticed that John's navi was a generic navi, instead of his actual one, Chance. Very odd for him.

After all, in this version of the game, in which the pieces were hard-light constructs of the board itself, one could and generally did add data into the slots provided on the sides, which morphed the pieces to your personal specifications. For example, while the only changes Luke had made were the addition of image data to make his operator look like himself, and the loading of Aeon into the board to take on the shape of his navi, a pair nearby had completely edited their pieces, one managing bronze animals, the other emerald fauna.

"Where's your navi at, John?" he asked. It seemed to be a sore spot, as John slightly winced.

"I got beaten horribly in a netbattle here the other day." Alan looked puzzled, but Luke understood. While the park's tables had been made so that people could play chess without their own personal set, many people, Luke and John included, used it for netbattling instead. One would just override the rules to the game, and log their navis in to fight in the middle of the board. The truly ambitious could even modify the playing field, turning the remainder of the pieces into obstacles.

"What, someone deleted it?" Luke had thought that to be impossible in a place like this; all the failsafes built into the tables would remove a netnavi if it was in danger of deletion, as if it had been captured in a game of chess.

"No, but close enough. The navi had some kind of program that gave him powerful fire attacks, and Chance wasn't lucky enough to avoid it. Not only did I lose, but the program was powerful enough to overload his randomizer. I was actually hoping that your dad could take a look, but since he's out of town, I just dropped it off at the store."

"Too bad. I certainly hope that it's repairable." Luke moved a prog in front of the navi to try to block John's attack, but he moved a proxy that Luke had forgotten into position, putting him in checkmate.

"Nice try," John said with a smirk. "But I win again." A score table popped up on the side of the board, tallying John's seventeenth win out of 25 matches.

"Just wait until you get your netnavi back. You're just asking for a netbattle with all these chess wins." Luke withdrew his data from the table, and Alan handed his PET back.

"Speaking of wins," John said as Luke installed Aeon within his PET again, "here comes the kid that fried my navi." Luke turned around as John gestured towards him. The netbattler was a kid, about their age, who wore dark sunglasses. He had blonde, spiky hair, and he wore a red jacket over a plain white shirt, and some black slacks. Overall, not intimidating enough to scare Luke, but enough that it took a second for him to convince himself to get to his feet and walk towards him.

"Hey," he said as he approached the kid, John hurriedly getting to his feet to protest. The teen turned, and removed his sunglasses to study him. Now that they were gone, Luke could see that he was probably a year or two younger than them, but easily the same age on an emotional level. "I hear that you're pretty good at netbattling."

"What of it?" The teen had a strange accent, one that Luke would later recognize as Swampopalen, but he paid little attention to it at this time. "May I presume you are challenging me? If so, I would at least like to know your name."

"It's Luke. Luke Terre." Luke caught a flash of recognition in his opponent's eyes, which flashed down to look at the watch Luke had recently taken to wearing. Could he be…no, he didn't have time for this.

"Well then, Terre-san," he said, offering his hand. "My name is Kitsune. Shall we play?"

Luke took his hand, shaking it firmly. "Sure, Kitsune. Let's play."

-

Within a few minutes, the two of them had seated themselves at one of the tables. Luke had quickly loaded Aeon into the system and rearranged the pieces so that they were all on the sides of the board, leaving the space in between for their navis. Meanwhile, Kitsune was fiddling with his PET, and finally jacked his navi in as well, it taking form in the center of the board.

"My name's Metro," the netnavi said as he walked towards Aeon. He was a fox-like navi, having two orange ears and nine bushy tails. The remainder of his body was humanoid, with red armor over a majority of it. His gloves and boots resembled flames, their edges reaching up to his elbows and knees, respectively, and he had long shoulder guards, pointing about a foot outwards. At his back were two crossing blades, and Aeon faintly recognized them as katanas. "Shall we begin?"

"Sure," Aeon said eagerly, his Summoner's Glaive appearing in his hands. "Luke?"

"Let's go, Aeon! Combat parameters set; execute!"

"Metro! Spirit of battle, ignite!"

The two battlers activated their PETs at the same time, Kitsune's old Link PET lighting up a bit, and Luke's PET Watch extending itself. They both then proceeded to send in chips to their navis, Luke sending a Sword, WideSword, LongSword, SonicWave, and Pulsar2, while Kitsune sent his navi a Vulcan2, two FireBlades, and two LongBlades.

"A few too many swords, I see," Aeon said as he lunged forward, slicing at Metro from the safe distance his glaive provided for him.

His opponent merely leapt backwards, drawing his swords from their sheaths. "I think that my Kasai will prove you wrong," he replied. Aeon was startled to see the sword in his right hand start on fire, and was hardly able to block with his glaive as Metro dashed forward and spun on his heel to slice at him with his swords. He managed to beat his opponent back though, and a few moments later, the two of them were several yards apart again.

"So far, your 'Kasai' aren't proving anything, Metro." Aeon formed a pickaxe in his hand and drove it into the ground, creating the sonic wave of a Mettaur. Metro evaded it easily though, and a near-transparent aura grew around him.

"Well, perhaps you underestimate the Kasai Spirit then. Let me show you what it can do." With those words, the aura intensified, and the sword in his left hand seemed to morph, coagulating down into a cannon of some sort. As it solidified, Metro smirked, and literally fired, a massive wave of flames rushing at Aeon, one he could surely never dodge. He had nothing to do but cross his arms in front of him and pray for deliverance.

Deliverance came. An aura formed around Aeon as well, and a large cloud of steam came up, keeping the combatants from seeing each other. When it faded, Metro's flamethrower was held loosely at his side, and in front of Aeon floated Glacios. The being hovered a foot or so over the ground, and its gloves were off, lying beside him. The aftereffects of his mighty attack trailed from the sleeves of the parka, thin wisps of frosty mist.

Metro growled as he swung his sword at open air, causing flames to fly towards the two of them. But Glacios simply expelled more freezing mist, which quelled the flames and continued onwards, chilling Metro. While the fiery navi was trying to get over the cold, Aeon ran past Glacios, and attacked Metro with his glaive. Metro was better resistant than he appeared, however, and the two of them traded blows for a few seconds, Metro deftly wielding his sword to slice past Aeon's whirling glaive, and Aeon using it as a staff, jabbing with both ends as he saw fit.

Eventually, Metro parried a strike and leapt over Aeon, swords appearing as he flew. When he landed, he had moved the sword from his right hand into his mouth, and he had the two FireBlades in his hands while his LongBlades had been attached to his elbows. "Now you'll see my master technique!" he said around the blade in his mouth. "Flaming Five Swords!" He then leapt into the air towards Aeon, swinging the swords on his arms in an X as he swung the blade within his teeth so that it would sever Aeon's neck.

Aeon barely saw the move, turning around fully just in time to see Metro flying through the air, his swords poised. He attempted to bring up a sword or something, to defend himself, but he took a step to steady himself and slipped on the now-icy chessboard, plummeting towards the ground. Yet his Fallen came to his aid, rushing over and catching him before being hit by Metro's technique, leaving four gashes in his parka and severing its hood, revealing a face of mist that chilled both Aeon and Metro to the bone.

Glacios apparently decided to take the attack personally, expelling another wave of frost made all the more potent by his recent injuries, which allowed more of his cold essence to leave his parka. Metro was easily hit and blown backwards into the invisible wall that was the edge of the board, falling to the ground and tipping over a proxy and a firewall. He coughed as he got unsteadily to his feet, shards of ice clinging to his armor. "Good move," he said, his swords vanishing, save his Kasai. "That was one of my best attacks."

"Thanks," Aeon responded, a faint gleam in his eye as he looked at Glacios. "Here's one of mine." At his signal, Glacios tore away his parka, and molded himself into a large glacier, which rushed at Metro to slam him into the wall. It moved quickly, but Metro had enough time to see a way to escape being slammed against the wall, and began to melt a hole into it with his flamethrower, using the hole as a safe haven.

It worked, partially. The glacier slammed into the wall and didn't do any damage to Metro, although a few shards did slice into his skin. But then he looked over at Aeon to see him charging a cannon of some sort. The Pulsar. Metro saw Aeon's plan an instant before he fired, but didn't have a chance to escape before it struck one of the larger shards, reverberating throughout the shattered shards of the glacier and deafening Metro.

The vulpine netnavi clutched his ears for a moment, and quickly initiated a repair program to restore his hearing. Just in time, he looked up to see Aeon running towards him, a LifeSword glowing in his hands. "I feel you underestimate my power," Metro said, or at least he thought so, and he formed his other sword in his hands again, before crossing it over the other. "Jakai and Reishi, unite!" As he spoke, he twisted the blades so they were perfectly parallel, and they began to fuse together. "Now, join together for the ultimate strike! Kasai Kyoudai!" The resulting katana glistened like a diamond, and ignited as Metro lunged forward to parry Aeon's LifeSword.

Amazingly, the new blade seemed to be of equal strength to the LifeSword, and Aeon was scarcely able to break the parry, twisting to take a piece out of Metro's shoulder guard. With his ears damaged, this threw Metro off balance, and he crashed to the ground. Aeon raised his LifeSword to drive it into his chest, but an aura flashed around Metro again as he raised his diamond katana, and it flashed, causing Aeon to fall back also.

Metro slowly got to his feet, and realized that his hearing was slowly coming back, most likely a side effect of the power of the Kasai Spirit. He then looked over at Aeon, who was rubbing his eyes. The effect of his Fiery Flash was to stun an opponent long enough to make them cease their attack, and cause some brief blindness. Quickly taking advantage of the situation, he leapt into the air and swung the flaming katana, sending flames everywhere heedlessly.

As Aeon's vision restored itself, he looked at the flames around him, realizing that he was trapped. "Luke, I need chips to get out of here!" he called, knowing that his NetOp would be able to hear him.

True to form, Luke had already found several that should help, and sent them through: a Bubbler, AquaSword, Recover50, HiCannon, and LongSword in total. Aeon used the recovery chip to heal himself a bit and then drew the AquaSword and used it to fight back the flames. As soon as he could see Metro, falling in midair, he fired the Bubbler, which hit him and knocked him back into the flames.

"Flames won't harm a fox," Metro called out amidst the burning field. Aeon fired several shots from his HiCannon towards the voice, but Metro was already moving, and the shots struck nothing. Aeon walked slowly through the flames, looking for Metro, and he suddenly appeared, leaping through the sky with his katana swinging downwards. Aeon knew that his AquaSword wouldn't stand a chance, so he cast it aside, calling his glaive to him.

It arrived just in time, blocking Metro's stroke. Aeon gave a slight push upwards as the glaive and katana contacted, and it was enough to knock Metro backwards, and as he fell, Aeon formed his HiCannon again and fired, hitting Metro in the chest and causing bits of his armor to fragment and break off. Metro got to his feet and looked at Aeon critically. "Good job. But a warrior can never give up, even when the odds are grim." Aeon scarcely registered his statement before he was moving again, delivering a punch with his left hand.

Aeon leaned backwards to evade the attack, but too late did he see Metro's hand shift into a Vulcan, and the bullets slashed across his right cheek, causing the skin there to de-rezz. Aeon attempted to ignore the pain, and quickly formed both his AquaSword and LongSword, swinging them horizontally at Metro. His enemy raised his hands to protect his weakened armor, however, and his gloves took a majority of the damage. He then fired again with his Vulcan, but Aeon rolled aside to dodge.

"This has gone on long enough," he said, sending energy through his glaive and causing the engravings to glow. An arcane circle appeared before him, and Aeon quickly began to call a Fallen. It came forth, and was revealed to be the serpentine Azul, sinuously intertwining itself with the air. It lunged for Metro as soon as he saw him, and eagerly took a bite out of the surprised netnavi.

Metro was barely able to defend himself, especially after that initial attack. He was able to beat back Azul for a few minutes with his blade, but eventually, the Fallen's sharp jagged fin sliced into one of his legs, and he buckled just long enough to allow the Fallen to take advantage of him, sweeping him into the air and weaving a pattern of pain around him. Aeon could simply watch, mesmerized by Azul's raw strength. He suddenly realized that Azul had split himself into three copies, and which explained how he could be attacking three portions of Metro's body at the same time.

He suddenly became aware of someone saying something to him, and then recognized the voice as Luke's. "Aeon, stop it or you'll delete him! Aeon, listen to me! You have to call off Azul!" The urgency of his voice snapped Aeon back to reality, and he dissolved the Fallen somehow, causing Metro to fall to the ground limply, before logging out. Aeon looked at his glaive a moment, still faintly glowing from the summons, and then did the same, returning to Luke's PET.

"I'm sorry about that," Luke said to Kitsune as soon as Aeon returned to his PET. "I'm not sure what happened. It must have been some sort of programming thing."

"The ghost in the machine," Alan said from behind. Beside Alan, John looked at him a bit oddly, as if wondering what Luke hadn't told him about the Fallen. In truth, Luke hadn't withheld anything, but something told him that it would take some convincing to explain that to him.

"I understand, Terre-san," Kitsune said, looking at Metro's diagnostics before pocketing his PET. "I had a similar experience once while working on my own program. I meant to create a small tornado to blow my opponent back and ended up trashing the entire server when it got too hot to handle."

"No hard feelings?" Luke said, hoping that he hadn't gained an enemy.

"Not a one," Kitsune said. "As long as you don't mind hanging out for a bit today. To discuss our match, and perhaps what our parents do for a living." As he spoke, he pulled his left sleeve back, to reveal a very familiar-looking watch. John recognized it right away, and looked at Luke in astonishment, but Luke simply nodded.

"Certainly. Alan, John, I'll talk to you later. And Alan, do me a favor and get ahold of that kid. I need someone to take a look at these Fallen."

-- 9: 03 AM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Pavo could scarcely believe that he was back here again; much less on a mission to prove that Shroud was alive. In addition, he was most likely a fugitive by this point, having joined Chris in fleeing the city while under X's protection, and was attempting to completely defy X by searching for people he claimed to be dead. He had incapacitated soldiers, highjacked a pair of sand speeders, stolen Synchro Chips, and was now trespassing on government property. What's more, he still didn't fully understand the situation.

"Now, remind me again why I'm risking jail time to search for people who are dead?" Chris looked at Pavo critically and sighed.

"For one thing, I don't think that Shroud's necessarily dead. After all, we did have to subdue several guards to get this far." That was true. He and Chris hadn't even had time to cross fuse before the soldiers had attacked, and it was only the martial arts classes that his campaign advisors had made him take and Chris' ninjitsu skills that had kept them from being defeated. After that, they'd both used their Synchro Chips.

"In addition, it's much too convenient for Shroud and the others to be dead. After all, since we didn't learn anything, X needs an excuse to attack the Vile 5. What better excuse that to avenge the deaths of the heroic Chaos Union?"

"These are all valid points, Chris, but I don't think that X would do that, at least not to Shroud. Isn't Shroud one of his more trusted advisors?"

Chris simply shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. X didn't become the leader of Neo Arcadia just because that was what he was programmed to be. Or rather, that's exactly why. X may have created a perfect utopia, but sometimes utopias aren't perfectly created. X has done more backstabbing than most people will care to admit. He's just like any other politician. Personally, I think that giving Shroud such an honored position is simply a public relations move."

Pavo gave Chris a brief glare. "I think that I'm tempted to take that politician comment seriously."

"Take it however you like. But I'm sure that you've done something that you'd see as immoral or wrong as a normal person to gain political favor, right?" Pavo had to agree with that one. He'd needed to apply a cheese quota once to make sure he had the funds to get reelected. That one had plagued him for nights on end. "It's the same concept. Except that X has been doing it for the last fifteen years or so."

Pavo opened his mouth to contend with that, but then noticed that they were approaching the steel doors. "All right, Chris. Now, how are we going to do this without wrecking another set of Synchro Chips?"

"Well, I think the best way to do it is for you to make a very small sphere of radiation and set it in front of the doors, and then I'll just shoot it with my laser weapon," he replied, pulling out the afore-mentioned gun. "And while I'm firing, you can use a shielding chip to protect us. You have anything good?"

"Just a Guard," he replied, searching through the database implanted into his arm. "Will that be enough?"

"It better be," Chris replied, and a chill went through Pavo's spine as he walked up to the door and laid a small sphere against it.

"I'm ready when you are," he said as he walked back towards him and readied his battlechip.

"All right," Chris said, aiming his laser. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!" Chris fired, and Pavo brought up his shield an instant later. Two instants later, the sphere shattered, and the world exploded around them again.


	8. Breaking Point

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its related properties. Capcom does. All remaining characters and ideas are the digital property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Please forgive my lack of a chapter last week, but there was no physically possible way to have produced a decent product for you by the weekend, because of various factors including (but not limited to) Decathlon studying, work, and sleep. So I decided to just take an extra week for this chapter, and here it is, on time for once. Please make sure that you tell others about this story, and remember to review. Also, enjoy the plot twist no one saw coming...including myself!

-

_Matthias plummetted through a cavern of nightmares, fighting to regain consciousness, if such a thing still existed. His last memory of reality was of being shot by his brother, in an ill-fated attempt to stop him from gaining one of the eight 'Pawns' he deemed necessary to his dream of world conquest. So far he had five, Drs. Taruka, Voltstein, and Flaun, the ONB trainee Matt Aurion, Brian's younger brother, and Mikoto Sakura, Shroud's cousin and Chaos Delta. Dr. Flaun had been Alex's most recent acquisition, and in reality, Matthias was probably bleeding all over the good doctor's couch._

_But in dreams, anything could happen, and so Matthias found himself in a cavern of mirrors, each one reflecting not his face, but his brother's face, smiling as the invisible camera panned backwards to reveal that he stood beside a sliding glass door, which both Dr. Flaun and a gun in hand. The camera shifts, moving to a side view, and Matthias Terre watches himself come into focus, bursting through an open door with a spear in his hand, a spear that creates mist around itself. But a spear is no good against a gun, and Matthias can only watch himself see only the gun, and comes to the same conclusion twice at the same time._

_He is about to be killed by his brother, and there is nothing he can do about it._

_As the gun fires in slow-motion, as it must for dramatic effect, a wave of concussive heat hits Matthias, and he faintly realizes that this did not happen the first time. Slowly, the image fades, and he sees only snatches in the cracked mirrors, a bullet sailing through the air, a Terre slumping to the ground while the other walks away, the glass breaking the broken glass the cracked mirror of breaking glass broken shards of whole glass breaking endlessly shattering reflection_

_He opens his eyes to see a beautiful woman crouched over him and pressing something into his bullet wound. He tilts his head to the side and lets out a sigh as he sees the bullet itself on the ceramic tile beside him, a floral pattern of some kind. It is bloody, as are her hands, but it is better to be bloody than to be broken, he thinks to himself._

_"Well, you're certainly not broken, Mr. Terre, not if I have anything to say about it." It takes him a moment to realize she is speaking to him and not his dead father, and several moments more to notice that he had spoken aloud. She took her hands from his wound a moment, and Matthias felt the pain return for an instant before she returned, and propped him up gently against whatever was behind him._

_"The couch, probably," he thought sarcastically, but she pressed a cup to his lips before he could think any more._

_"Drink," she told him, and he obeyed, nearly gagging on the cup's contents, a tea of some kind that tasted distinctly of dirt. He tried to fight against another sip when the girl pulled the cup away to allow him to swallow it, but she lightly held him down, forcing him to finish the cup. "I won't have you die on me," he heard her say faintly as the tea carried him into a more peaceful sleep, and his eyes blinked twice to clear his vision, so he might see the woman who would become his wife once more before slipping into unconsciousness._

_-_

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 7: **Cacumen Infractionis_

-

-- 9: 06 AM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Pavo slowly opened his eyes to see that they were alive, somehow. He and Chris had been blown backwards about twenty feet, and his shield was lying in pieces on the ground, but they were alive, and still maintaining Cross Fusion to boot. "Are you all right, Chris?" he asked, getting to his feet.

The ninja nodded, standing and sheathing his laser in his holster. "I'll be fine. That shield of ours didn't work as well on me, but luckily, my armor was fairly thick. Did we take out the door?"

To be honest, Pavo hadn't looked, but he did now. The door hadn't stood a chance, and barely a scrap of it remained. "Come see for yourself," Pavo said as he walked forward, stepping gingerly through the hole they had made. Perhaps, if he was lucky, Shroud and the others really would be alive, and this wouldn't have been a fool's gambit.

Unfortunately, this didn't appear to be the case. Pavo looked out upon destruction, tons and tons of jagged rocks forming piles upon the ground, and water seeping through into the indentions made, forming small lakes and rocky mountains, conversely. Pavo heard Chris speaking from behind, but didn't care to listen. They were lost now, all of them.

"I certainly hope that we haven't spoiled X's plans too badly," Chris was saying as he walked out onto the cliff's edge to see the rocky ground below. "What? But…this can't be…I was so sure…" He was stunned into silence, and reached to his pendant, muttering to himself.

"It's all over now, Chris," Pavo said bitterly, charging an attack in his hands. "The Chaos Union has died, and we're fugitives in a land we can't escape from." He threw the sphere down in anger, and then threw another, and another, trying to channel his rage outward to keep from succumbing to his grief. Chris simply watched. There was nothing more to say.

-

Matthias tentatively pushed at the rocks above them yet again, but it was no use. The electricity he was able to summon was barely strong enough to form a dome of safety that protected them, much less push the stones above aside. Not to mention the fact that he was slowly growing weaker, not only from sleep deprivation, but from the sheer strain of being in Cross Fusion so long.

Most of the others had reverted to their human form long ago, save for the ever-vigilant Shroud and SH, who was their backup shield creator. The multitude of paper SH could create was weak, but he could hold the rocks over their heads for about two or three minutes, which gave him a short break during which to regain his strength. He couldn't sleep though. He'd wake dead.

So the three of them had been awake for roughly 24 hours, give or take. The others had gotten a chance to sleep, although someone needed to be awake to keep an eye on Alistor constantly. He'd been hit in the head by a blunt rock, and while he was stable, the impact had knocked him unconscious instantly, and he had a wound on his forehead that required attention. Currently, Link was on medicinal duty, and Golex, Seija, and Brian were asleep.

It was a miracle that no one else had been hurt. He and SH had come flying out of that submarine like rockets, and only an instinctive lashing out with his electrical powers had allowed him to save the others, forming a dome that kept the remainder of the ceiling from falling on them, but effectively trapping them. They were now encased under tons of stone, and were likely to starve.

Luckily enough, the waters weren't encroaching on their domain quite yet, SH helping to soak them up with his papery abilities. But it couldn't last forever, and if starvation didn't do them in, the water would. They all knew it, but Matthias had no intentions of letting Mother Nature do them in. So he kept pushing against the lethal roof over their heads, and began to feel himself grow faint.

"SH, shield us, now!" Shroud shouted, as Matthias finally lost his hold over the electricity. It dissipated, but a shield of stiff paper took its place, supported only by the thick paper columns that SH formed under the initial layer. He kept adding sheets to support the weakening areas of his shield, but the effort would be futile, as all his other efforts had been.

Taking advantage of the respite, Matthias collapsed, slipping easily from his cross-legged position into a prone one, spreading his body along the deck beneath them, his hand splashing into a small puddle of water. SH would need to purge the area of water again in about 15 minutes or so. If they survived that long.

"Stay awake, Matthias," Shroud said warningly. "We can't risk you falling asleep." Matthias knew that, but something inside of him kept him from wanting to listen. Despite Shroud's words to the contrary, he slowly felt himself slipping into the black despair of slumber. "Matthias…Matthias…"

A large explosion jolted him awake again, and he opened his eyes to see the paper dome SH had created aflame, and shards of stone falling down towards the dock. Matthias let out a roar of frustration and unleashed all of his energy, causing his and Shroud's hair to stand on end, and a dome of lightning to form all around them again. The stones that had slipped through had luckily missed the others, although Link had come very close to being squished, and had fallen into the water when the deck beside him splintered.

As SH moved to help Link out, Matthias looked up at the newly formed hole in the roof. A hole that could be their salvation, if one could get through his shield without sending the remainder of the rocks to tumble to their doom. He looked at Shroud ironically, and opened his mouth to form some sort of witticism to attempt to lighten the mood of their last few hours, but he stopped when he saw the look on Shroud's face. "Shroud, you can't. We don't know what's up there, and I don't think that I'm strong enough to hold the shield if something hits it."

"I'm sorry, Matthias. But it's this or certain death. Forgive me." Matthias opened his mouth to protest, but Shroud moved too quickly, extending his wings and breaking into flight, soaring through the hole in the ceiling. The impact with the electrical field made Matthias' teeth ache, and took a large portion of his strength, but he held it up. But not for long. If help were above, they would need to save them in the next few minutes.

The next few minutes passed. By this time, everyone was awake, even Alistor, albeit faintly. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Brian talking with SH, and managed to pick up a few words through the strain of his labor, "--what's up there to begin with?" or "We need to tell him that--", but nothing of any interest to him at the time. There was nothing but the shield around them to concern him, so that was upon which he concerned himself.

He slowly began to feel a slight lifting in the burden, and it took him several minutes to realize that this was because he was channeling his own life force into the shield. He faintly heard someone telling him to stop, and vaguely recognized it as his netnavis. But he was too far gone now to listen. Matthias Terre was prepared to die before letting go of this shield.

A loud explosion rocked their prison, and Matthias faintly saw an opening of light in the side of the dome, with people behind it. The others hurriedly pushed their way through the electrical field, and Matthias allowed more of himself into the surging field to adapt to the strain. Eventually, they were all gone, SH being the last in case the electricity would have failed again. Then Matthias stood alone, and looked up at the hole to see the others beckoning to him.

A voice suddenly entered his head, and Matthias couldn't tell whether it belonged to Gizmo, or was a tragic byproduct of his growing delusions. "Go, Matthias, get out! Go through the hole, GO THROUGH THAT HOLE!" He snapped suddenly and broke into a run, his life force slowly returning to him as he ran. Sections of the electrical dome began to separate, causing rocks to fall around him, but all he saw was the yellow-tinged glimpse of freedom.

His sanity finally regained its hold three steps away from the hole in the prison. Time seemed to slow as he caught himself up on the past period of time, and realized with joy that they had somehow been saved. As he grew a step closer, he began to wonder how Shroud had found someone to help save them, but with his next step, he decided that the point was probably moot, because he could find out this all later, back at the capital. He stretched out his right leg to take another step. Then all hell broke loose.

For some reason he couldn't explain, the electrical field had an adverse reaction to Matthias, and as the others watched in shock, his right foot lost Cross Fusion, returning to its normal state: five toes, a foot, and a boot over them. He seemed to trip as this foot touched the rocks beyond, perhaps on some unsteady ground, and he fell forward, pushing his hands past the barrier to break his fall.

That wasn't all he broke. Within the next second, Matthias had fallen far enough through the barrier that the PET strapped to his arm had passed through as well. He lost Cross Fusion, and as a result, the electrical dome vanished, and the stone dome collapsed.

Matthias never felt himself hit the ground.

-- Wednesday, April 2nd, 4:17 PM, 7th Floor, the Hotel Electric, Electown, Electopia --

"So, what's up with your dad now? He's still in Neo Arcadia?" John and Luke were walking down the hall briskly, speaking quietly within the silence of the seventh floor. Electown wasn't a large city, but the Hotel Electric was worth coming to see. The hotel doubled as the central mainframe for the entire city, and the building itself was built in the shape of a battery, round and cylindrical. One could almost hear the crackling of the data as you walked through its silent halls.

The hotel had only eight floors, and the accommodations grew better and better as you went up. The fact that their contact this afternoon was staying on the seventh floor told you that he was most likely as good as Alan had said he was. Either that or his parents were undeniably rich. Not too rich though, or they'd be in one of the suites above.

The seventh floor's carpeting was the shade of crushed eggplant, and Luke looked down at it while he chose his words carefully. John knew just about everything he'd learned about the Chaos Union, including what Kitsune had said on Sunday, but Luke hadn't yet mentioned the information he'd found from hacking into the Arcadian databases. When he'd returned Sunday afternoon, after meeting with Kitsune to discuss the Chaos Union, he'd checked their files as he'd suggested, and discovered that his father, along with a majority of the Chaos Union, was MIA, presumed deceased. However, the next morning, he was listed as being alive, but in critical condition. That didn't appease his fears much.

"Well, he and the other Chaos Union members were supposed to be back by Sunday evening, or Monday at the latest. The fact that he's still not home worries me, to be sure, but I can't imagine that he's been sent anywhere else." He felt bad about disclosing the full truth from his best friend, but it wasn't doing him any harm, and the fact of the matter was that John didn't really need to know that his father was supposedly in critical condition, especially since 3 days ago, he'd been considered dead.

They reached the room, numbered 724, and stopped outside of it. "This is the place," John said. "I certainly hope that this kid can help with your navi. You don't need another glitch like in your battle with Metro. Otherwise, you might end up making some powerful enemies."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Luke said as he rapped on the door. He only had to wait a moment before Pedro Ferreira opened the door, and he quickly bade them step into the suite. He closed the door behind them, and Luke and John hesitantly walked ahead into the sitting room.

Like all good hotels, it had a couch and a television, although this television boasted of its top-of-the-line capabilities on a sticker in its upper-right corner. A kitchenette was off to their left, and Pedro slipped behind it to pour them all a glass of water. As he opened the remarkably well stocked refrigerator, Luke faintly glimpsed about three wheels of cheese crammed inside, and a quart of something that was supposedly "Homemade Liquid Cheese", or so the label taped on it said. He twitched in disgust but maintained his composure otherwise. It didn't do to offend the kid who might be able to fix your netnavi.

As to the kid himself, he looked to be only a few years younger than they, thirteen or fourteen perhaps. His hair was a dark brown that neared black, and it hung messily about his head, strands dangling in every direction. He pushed one of these strands out of his vision as he passed the glasses through the large window to his guests, and then took his own and walked back into the sitting room.

"I always dislike having to play host, so I'm just going to treat this visit like we're all good friends here, all right?" Without waiting for either Luke or John to respond in the affirmative, he continued to talk, after taking a sip of his water. "Now, which one of you is the one with the crazed netnavi?"

"Err…I am, but Aeon's not crazed, just glitched." Luke detached his PET Watch from his right hand, passing it over to Pedro for him to run a diagnostic. Pedro looked at it a moment, and then extended it to its full size, even larger than the extended version used for netbattles. It was now roughly the size of a textbook, although only as thick as a small leaflet, and a majority of its body was circuitry, which Pedro now began to fiddle with.

"Hmm…I see that you've installed this program into your netnavi a bit sloppily," he said, after a few minutes of silence. Luke and John looked at each other at this, trying to hide their surprise behind their masks of indifference. They'd had to use those an awful lot lately. Unfortunately, this time, it didn't work, and Pedro noticed it. "What did I say?"

Luke sighed, and decided to level with Pedro. "I didn't actually choose to install the program, Pedro. It installed itself." A light of understanding came into Pedro's eyes, and he set his glass of water on the end table before getting up and plugging Luke's PET into a laptop upon the floor, which brought its screen up onto the television.

"Hey, Luke," Aeon said as he was brought up onto the screen, which seemed to have a two-way camera installed into it somewhere. "Is this the room where that little programming prodigy's holed up?"

"The 'little' prodigy is the one handling your PET, my friend," Pedro said in a brief stint of passion, apparently disliking being called small. "So I'd watch your tongue before I accidentally get rid of your arms." Aeon smiled sheepishly and apologized, but Pedro was already focused on something else. "Anyways, if this program of yours really did install itself, the problem is most likely that it was meant to be refined before its application, but because it was tailored to fit your netnavi exactly, it installed itself before you could do so. Correct?"

"Close enough," Luke said, taking a drink of his water and moving his chair closer to the television. "So are you going to be able to refine it then?"

Pedro nodded. "It shouldn't be too hard, although I can't be certain. If this 'Alan' told you that I'm the best programmer in Electopia, as I would assume, he's probably wrong. I know lots of people who are better than me. I just have a knack for being able to try something eccentric, and have it work perfectly. Like my netvirus, Ebi."

"What?" John said, as confused as Luke. "What's a netvirus?"

"It's exactly like a netnavi, except you start with a virus. I just captured a Shrimpy with a generic netnavi, and then programmed it as you would the shell of a netnavi. It's not nearly as powerful, but it works, and it can get into some places that netnavis are forbidden from entering." As he spoke, he rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a PET of his own, blue and silver, and jacked it into his laptop, causing his 'netvirus' to materialize on the screen.

Ebi looked no different from a Shrimpy virus, and Aeon's glaive automatically materialized as his systems detected the viral signature. He dissolved it again when he realized that Ebi was no ordinary virus, and on his side, but he still felt a faint sense of unease as he looked him over. He didn't appear to be any different from a Shrimpy on the outside, but as the netvirus opened his mouth and began to speak, Aeon knew that he really had been changed from his original state. "Greetings. What brings you here?"

"This is Aeon, Ebi. I'm checking out a program of his. Feel free to get acquainted." Pedro continued looking at Luke's PET as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, but frowned to himself as he skimmed a line of source code. "Well, it seems as though the data specs for your program are missing from Aeon's file registry. Did you know this?"

Luke sighed, and rummaged through his pocket to find the small drive that held the data for Project: Fallen. He and John had discussed this the day before, and decided to simply see if Pedro would be able to fix the problems with the program without needing or asking for the specifications. He had planned to keep the exact properties of the program under wraps, especially if it had at one time belonged to the government. The last thing that Luke was looking for was jail time.

Pedro took the finger-sized drive and plugged it into his laptop, bringing up its files. "Well, I can see why you aren't keeping it on the PET," he said a few minutes later after reading the overview. "This project is very powerful, more so than I had anticipated. Theoretically, one could adapt the way these 'Fallen' are formed any way he chooses, not just the way that they are now."

"What do you mean? Like an alternate form?"

Pedro shook his head. "Not quite. The data of the beings themselves will remain written the way it was, so there will only be one Fallen for every deleted navi whose data you obtain. But you can choose to express that data differently. Tell me…have you ever heard of Style Changes?"

Luke had heard the phase before, but couldn't remember exactly where. John knew though, and he spoke up. "They're specific codes that manipulate a netnavi's frame. With an equipped style, a netnavi can change their own shape--within reason, of course. They aren't common any more, because the secret to making them died with Dr. Hikari several years back."

Now Luke remembered where he'd read the phrase. After learning of his father's involvement with the Chaos Union, he'd gone to the library and downloaded several news articles about them. One had been from right before their disbanding, and detailed how they had failed to save Dr. Hikari from being assassinated. In the article, Dr. Hikari was mentioned at having developed Style Changes, as well as his son's unique program known as Soul Unison. Neither had been successfully reinvented since then, and Hikari's son Lan wasn't giving out his father's secrets.

"Well, I've been studying whatever I can find on the subject," Pedro continued, "and I think that one of the ways you could manifest a Fallen would be through a Style Change. The only problem is you would have to have the Style Change program written into your netnavi prior to this."

"Which is impossible, because Style Changes aren't commercially available yet," Luke replied. "So what's your point?"

"My point," Pedro said, closing the laptop and looking pointedly at Luke, "is that I have been working on recreating Style Changes, and I believe that this data may be of help to me. So, I ask you, may I borrow it?"

The answer Luke wanted to give was no. The data was his to begin with, and for all he knew, Pedro was waiting to sell it to the highest bidder. Still, recreating a lost program would be a grand feat, and he wouldn't mind being a part of it. "All right. Keep the drive; you can save what you need to it. But I want it back when you're done, and I'd appreciate it if you'd work on refining the program for Aeon first."

"Certainly," Pedro said, folding the PET back to its smallest size. "I won't even need your netnavi to do so, so feel free to take him with you. I'll send you an email in a few days with some progress results."

"You don't have my email," Luke said as he took his PET out of Pedro's hands and allowed Aeon back in.

"I do now," Pedro said simply, before reopening his laptop and bending over it in an obvious sign of dismissal. Luke and John took the hint and let themselves out, silent until they were six or seven doors down, and halfway to the elevator.

"You did have that whole thing recorded, right?" Luke asked his companion as they neared the end of the hallway. "After all, if this turns ugly, I may need that as legal evidence."

"Don't worry about it," John said, extending the PET strapped to his wrist to turn the recorder off. "I got all the audio, and whatever visual I could without seeming too suspicious. And there's always whatever Aeon can get off of the hotel's security cameras too."

"Excellent," Luke said. "But I certainly hope that this goes smoothly. Those Style Changes sound awfully interesting."

-- Thursday, April 3rd, 10:41 AM, Hikari Hospital, Rho Complex, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias wasn't the world's fastest healer. Everyone in the Chaos Union knew that. But when his body needed to leap back into action, it did it almost instantly, which had caused several 'medical miracles'. The truth was, his body seemed to know exactly when it could reboot itself without causing more damage, and if his body needed to reboot then and there, it did.

Such was the case now. He had been brought into the hospital by his companions, several of whom needed medical attention of their own, and was treated right away. He'd been in a coma the last few days, while the medical staff did their work as they always did. His doctors had informed Shroud a day earlier that he would awake once his body had recovered, but there was little more they could do at this point. Since the Chaos Union had been reinstated in secret by X once they left on their mission the weekend prior, Shroud was now considered Matthias' medical proxy, and decided to simply move him into a ward designed to cope with comas, rather than waste valuable dollars keeping him in the ER.

No one had expected him to awaken less than a day later. But at exactly eight o'clock in the morning, Matthias opened his eyes, feebly asked the nurse beside him to contact the Chaos Union, and promptly fell back to sleep. The nurse had been startled at first, but decided to contact Shroud anyways, and Matthias' friends had quickly come to the hospital to meet him.

The nurse that had been designated to keep an eye on him gently jostled Matthias awake. "Mr. Terre? Your friends are here to see you."

"Thank you," he said hoarsely, reaching over to the nightstand beside him for a glass of water. "Send them in, please." His chest hurt, and breathing was harder than usual, which told him that he'd probably cracked a rib or two. The last time that had happened to him, his brother had thrown him into a wall while wearing a powerful exoskeleton. He didn't recall exactly how long it took the wounds to heal, but it wasn't a terribly bad injury, especially with Irine's ability to create her miraculous bone repair serum. Regrowing bones was painful, but it took a lot less time than it did to regrow them naturally.

Shroud led the way in, and his face was a carefully composed mask, hiding whatever his emotion was at the sight of him. Matthias knew that it wasn't a positive one though; Shroud had given up hiding all of his emotions years ago. If Shroud didn't want him to be able to guess what he was thinking, that wasn't necessarily a good sign. Behind him came four others, SH, Brian, Golex, and Alistor, the last of whom was wearing bandages around the site of his head wound, making him look like he was wearing a turban.

"Where are the others?" Matthias asked right away. "They all made it out of the tunnels safely, didn't they?" He couldn't imagine them surviving that cave-in only to die minutes later.

Shroud quelled his fears quickly with a nod. "Link is with his family right now, and Pavo and Chris are in prison for the remainder of the week. It seems that they came back to the caverns to rescue us without X's permission, and broke a few laws in the process. My legal connections managed to keep them from having to do any serious time, but they're being kept in solitary until Saturday, and were hit with a fine too. But they'll be all right. How are you doing?"

"Fine, I guess. I haven't actually spoken to a physician yet, but I don't feel like anything is seriously damaged, except for some cracked ribs."

Shroud's face revealed nothing, but the others reacted quickly, their eyes opening wide for a second before they managed to restore their composure. The Chaos Union had grown very good at that skill, since it didn't pay to work in espionage without being able to fool opposing nations. However, Alistor had never learned that skill, and no one thought far enough ahead to shut him up before he spoke. "Matthias, are you crazy? Your spine is broken!"

The tension in the room congealed into silence.


	9. Bonds of Blood

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters and concepts are the sole property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note: **Sorry, but this chapter's a little shorter than usual, as a transition between events. The next chapter might be a bit longer, and will probably last about a week, and then the action will pick up again. Read, review, and enjoy!

-

_The battle was over. Atos had finally been defeated, and the Chaos Union was triumphant yet again._

_Matthias lounged peacefully in his dormatory, trying to relax. A majority of the Chaos Union members were on the mainland, seeing what had happened to the remainder of the world while the Chaos Union had been saving it. Shroud was across the hall, and through his open door, Matthias could see that he was talking with his new netnavi, Juno, while contacting the ONB. He was still trying to get them that job with the ONB, and Matthias couldn't really blame him. Saving the world didn't pay the bills._

_As for the remainder of the Union, the new kids Raymond and Chris were upstairs, in the Labyrinth, and Brian was around somewhere. The base was somewhat empty, and quiet, which hadn't happened in some time. The silence was broken by the pinging of his laptop, and Matthias walked over towards it, typing in the commands to bring up his e-mail._

_There was only one message, but Matthias didn't recognize the address. Still, he put Gizmo on standby in case there were any virues lurking within, and opened it._

_**To: Matthias Terre, White King**_

_**From: The Black King **_

_**Re: Opening Gambit**_

_**As always, White makes the first move. Strike hard and fast, or my following moves will cripple you to the core. If you need aid deciding who your players should be, let me recommend your fellow Chaos Union members. After all, Shroud Taruka would be an excellent Vizier, and the manipulative Brian would be an excellent Bishop. Still the remainder is yours. So, will you send out a Knight to vanquish me alone, or let a Pawn be the scapegoat to spur your other pieces into action. The choice is yours, but move soon, for passing your turn could be fatal. And always remember to castle, because while Kings are important, Rooks are stronger.**_

_**Black**_

_Matthias could scarcely believe the audacity of whoever had sent this. It was odd though, several phrases seemed familiar to him, such as the entitling of the piece commonly considered Queen as Vizier, or the recomendation to castle. Well, it wouldn't really be of much consequence at this point, and he filed it away, reminding himself to tell Shroud about it at a later date._

_And so, White passed their turn. Black did not make the same mistake._

_-_

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 8: **Copulae Sanguinis_

-_  
_

-- 10: 43 AM, Hikari Hospital, Rho Complex, Neo Arcadia --

The initial shock wore off quickly, and Shroud began to explain Matthias' condition to him. "It's not a large problem, because you only punctured the spinal cord enough to cause paralysis. Any less and you would still have some mobility. You might have even been able to walk."

"So how is this not a large problem?" Matthias retorted. He and Shroud were now the only ones in the room, the others having left during the uncomfortable silence. Shroud sighed and took a seat beside Matthias.

"My wife--"

"Irine." The distinction Matthias made was clear, but Shroud didn't really care to have this discussion now.

"Irine then, if you insist. Whatever you'd like me to title her as, she's been developing a shot to restore nerve tissue, similar to her heal patches and her bone repair shot. We already prepared you for it if you'd like to take it, by repairing your vertebrae strategically to allow an injection to be effective."

"So why weren't you giving me this before?"

"You can't use the medicine while the patient is asleep, or unconscious. It requires a certain level of brain function, since the spinal cord is directly connected to the brain, and that's only available while you're awake." Matthias looked interested, so Shroud thought it best to begin to forewarn him now. "The injection doesn't work all the time, and if it does, it will be painful once you regain feeling."

"What's the success rate?"

"30 of the people we've tested it on have had some recovery, and there was no visible effect on the other 70. Of that 30, only 5 recover completely, 40 regain either movement or feeling in their legs, and the other 55 only recover slightly, barely enough to make a difference."

Matthias lay back in his bed, almost defeated. "I guess we'd better give it a shot then. Am I allowed to leave the hospital?"

"I would suppose. Your ribs are healing normally, because we didn't have time to apply the repair shot to it, but they should be fine as long as you don't overexert yourself."

Matthias laughed, half bitter, half slightly amused, and Shroud realized the irony of what he had just said. "I'll try not to run a marathon, Shroud. Now get me a wheelchair and let's get out of here. I want that shot of Irine's, and I want to know what I've missed."

-- 11: 28 AM, 1580 Iota Complex, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias winced as Irine injected the serum into his spine. He was lying on a couch in their living room, and she was leaning over him, a needle inserted into the lowest vertebra in his back with feeling remaining in it. Unfortunately, this also meant that it hurt, especially once the medication began its work several moments later, after Shroud and Irine had helped Matthias into a sitting position. "You weren't kidding, Shroud," Matthias said in slight dismay. "That did hurt."

"If you think it hurts now, wait until feeling comes back to the rest of your body," Irine said as she packed the needles away. "You're not the worst case I've treated though. You should start to regain movement in a week or two, and you should be able to move stiffly in three to four weeks, although your feet will still be fairly non-responsive. Feeling generally returns after four to five weeks, and in about two months, your paralysis should be clinically gone, although I advise maintaining the treatment for a few months afterwards to restore more nervous tissue."

"Amazing," Matthias said, smiling at Irine. She returned the smile, but Seitoka began to cry in the room adjoining and Irine hurried to calm him. He then looked over at Shroud, who was coming out of the kitchen with a pair of soft drinks.

"Still no alcohol, right?" he asked, passing Matthias a can while opening his own.

"Nope," Matthias said, opening the can with one hand. He took a sip, and then held it in his useless lap, trying not to notice the fact that he couldn't feel how cold it was. "So, what's happened over the last few days? All I know is what you told me on the way here: that Pavo and Chris came to rescue us and helped us out of the cavern. But what happened after that?"

"Well, you were unconscious, so after we got those rocks off of you, we got you to the hospital as fast as possible. We stayed there for a majority of the day, while you were in critical condition, and then after you were finally stabilized that evening, we just went to my place and crashed, except for Link and Alistor, who were forced to remain at the hospital for one evening. The next day, you had slipped into a full-blown coma, and there was nothing more we could do. We just stopped in to see you whenever possible."

"What about my son? How much does he know?"

"Nothing. X forbade us to contact him because this was a national affair." Seeing the anger growing in Matthias' eyes, Shroud held up a hand to silence him. "I told him not to, but he insisted. He still needs the Chaos Union as a bargaining chip amongst the remainder of the world. His army isn't very mighty as of yet, but having us might help keep countries like Netopia out of our way until it is strong enough to face them. But if anyone discovered that any of our members had been paralyzed, much less our second-in-command, they would surely strike."

"Well, I see that I'll need to have a conversation with X then," Matthias bitterly replied. "I have no intentions of being used by a country I'm not even a part of. I didn't go on this mission for X, I went on this mission because you asked me too. So I'll stay long enough to get walking again, and then I'm headed home. I'm sure someone in Electopia can figure out Irine's little system, or perhaps I'll just take a few vials with. But I have no intention of remaining here to frighten the world into submission, especially since I'm not to threatening at this point."

"You and I will probably be talking to X soon anyways," Shroud said, crumbling his empty can and setting it aside. "He's scheduled a press conference for tomorrow. I think that he's going to announce the treaty with Sharo."

"What! He can't! Didn't SH tell you that's what the Vile 5 are waiting for?" Of the many things that his paralysis had taken from him, Matthias missed pacing the most at this point. It was always nice and relaxing.

"Yes, he did, and he managed to persuade us. But X was a harder sell. Since the mission was a trap to begin with, he feels that the Vile 5 may have intentionally lied to us. Personally, I think that they would have had nothing to lose by telling the truth, but I can't sway him, and Harpuia is the only one of his generals on my side. He won't sign the treaty itself tomorrow, but I think that announcing it is just enough for the Vile 5 to consider an attack."

"Well, we'll need to convince him otherwise then," Matthias said, pushing the button on his wheelchair's remote control. The chair rolled over towards him, and Matthias managed to struggle his way into it, ignoring Shroud as he tried to help him. As he finally maneuvered his way into his seat, Gizmo materialized on one of the armrests, a frown upon his face.

"Matthias, maybe you should rest. You've been through an awful lot lately." The netnavi was wearing his battle armor, surprisingly, and Matthias concluded it was a subconscious emergence of his preparation to battle with Matthias and keep him from pushing himself.

"I can rest once I'm back home and this nightmare is over. But since I'm not fully capable of flying a jet at this point, and generally dislike letting millions of people and netnavis die, I have to try to save this country. And I need you to be my legs, Gizmo. Shroud kept you with him while I was in my coma, right?"

"Yeah, like he's supposed to," his netnavi responded. "I even managed to record several conversations between him and X." Shroud looked a bit surprised by that, but Matthias continued anyways.

"Then you know what's at stake better than I do right now. Hack into the Arcadian servers and set all important documents to send a copy of themselves to a dummy email account. Then get back to the Electopian servers and contact Luke. Tell him everything he needs to know, and then check out our finances over the last week or so, like we normally do. When you're done with that, feel free to take the rest of the day off or something. I'll contact you when I need help."

Gizmo looked hesitant, but realizing the level of trust Matthias was showing, he nodded and jacked into Shroud's home network, taking a roundabout path towards the Core Building's server. As Matthias began to roll towards the door, Irine returned, Seitoka's protests having been quelled several minutes ago. "Matthias, are you leaving?"

"Yes, Irine. Shroud and I need to go talk to X and try to stop him from signing that contract with Sharo."

"Well, take care. You're welcome to stay here for the evening." Irine walked towards Matthias and bent over his chair, giving him a gentle hug, promising nothing more.

"Thank you, Irine. I really appreciate it." As she let go of him, Matthias adjusted the chair, shifting it into a hovering mode, and floated out the door, feebly attempting to wage war against his crippled self.

-- 1: 03 PM, Cain International Airport, Eta Complex, Neo Arcadia --

"If I may have everyone's attention, please? Please remain seated until the plane has come to a complete stop. Then, please remove your belongings from the overhead luggage compartment and exit the plane in an orderly fashion. Once again, thank you for flying Arcadian Air, and we hope you have a pleasant stay in Neo Arcadia."

Jules rolled his eyes at the stewardess' comment regarding his seating preference, and unbuckled his seat belt before she even finished talking. An exasperated click of his wife's tongue sounded in his ears, but he ignored the barb, instead standing and opening their overhead compartment as others had begun doing.

"Jules, don't you ever listen to anyone?"

He smiled, pulling her purse out and passing it over to her. "Only you, my dearest Miko, and only when it's convenient." She threw her stiff airline pillow at him, but he caught it one handed and stuffed it back into the compartment. He grabbed his own pillow and wedged it in after removing his own bag, and then closed the compartment back up and looked back down at his wife. Miko was a slim woman, with dark red hair trimmed to stop right above her shoulders, and wore a business suit of red and black. He, on the other hand, was totally opposite, having slightly spiked hair so blond it bordered on white, and wearing a pair of tan slacks, a white shirt, and a pale grey jacket. They were polar opposites, yin and yang, and perfectly suited for each other.

He and Mikoto had met years before ever even considering dating, but that was made a bit more understandable considering that they were only 12 and 13 the first time they met, and in their line of work, romantic relationships didn't fall into place. But some years later, after Jules had finally managed to escape the political entanglements of Electopian society, they met again, and seemed drawn to each other even before recognition kicked in. Fifteen years and one child later, they were stepping right back into the madness that had nearly cost Jules his life, and Miko her family. For they had been no ordinary teenagers upon that first meeting. They had been contemporaries, Mikoto Sakura, the fiery Chaos Delta, and J.G, the new recruit who would later be known as Chaos Fox, a warrior of mystery.

Neither of them had kept those names after the disbanding of the Union, and few today even knew that the Swampopolan couple had any ties to Electopia, much less their famed Chaos Union. Their son, Kitsune, was probably the only one who wasn't a former CU member, but they could trust Kitsune. The boy seemed blessed with an uncanny sense of luck, and that sense was the primary reason why they were here in the first place. If it hadn't been for him bumping into Matthias' kid last weekend, he and Miko would never have known that Shroud was throwing himself towards danger again, and the two of them never would have come to Neo Arcadia.

They began to walk down the aisle, carefully evading those who had actually waited for the plane to stop before getting out of their seats. As they neared the exit, they stopped beside a built-in console and plugged their PETs into it, receiving their netnavis back from the Aerial Lounge, a wireless net that allowed netnavis whose operators were traveling by air to communicate within a chat room. Neo Arcadia was the first nation to pioneer the concept, and it was one of their few innovations that had been adapted by the remainder of the world. Jules' navi Elder returned to his PET stoically, without any complaints, but as Miko's netnavi Kyuubi returned, Elder's eyes flickered in her direction, and Jules soon discovered why.

"Well, I was certainly surprised by the lack of a decent reception in that lounge," Kyuubi said later, as they waited for their luggage to come around the turnstile. "It was at least halfway decent while you stayed within the plane, but browsing about the surrounding networks…horrible. Absolutely horrible." Elder rolled his eyes, and Jules completely understood. Kyuubi was a masterful netbattler, and she and Miko had actually won a tournament once together. But take her out of the arena, and she was nearly impossible to live with; very arrogant and haughty. Her appearance reflected that, in battle she wore an elaborate suit of golden armor over her white albino fur, and out of battle, she wore a pearly white cloak that seemed to extend an aura of aloofness over her vulpine figure.

Elder, on the other hand, was her total opposite, similar as to how opposite Jules and Miko were. His hair was pure white, and he wore robes of red and silver. He showed no outward hostility, but behind his aged eyes the flames of battle still raged, and the flaming longsword he could summon was a testament to that. Elder was the result of an error, one that had occurred the first time Jules had tried to Cross Fuse. A hidden programming string within his netnavi Elphine had activated, and his navi was partially deleted, with Jules going to the hospital as a result. The Chaos Union had been worried about a traitor within their ranks while he was unconscious, but when he awakened, Jules informed them that it was his fault; a bit of stray coding that must have escaped his notice. They backed off after that, and Jules restored his netnavi as Elder.

"Well, we'll have to file a complaint with the administrators of that server, won't we dear?" Jules smiled and nodded as Miko spoke, but he didn't honestly think that the system administrators would care. As soon as the Aerial Lounge went worldwide, Neo Arcadia was forced to pass control of the system off to a privately owned business, and they could probably care less about the needs of one incredibly arrogant netnavi. Still, Jules didn't really care, so he just grabbed their luggage off of the turnstile and began to wheel it down the aisle.

"You're still sure about all this, Miko?" Jules asked as they came to the front gate. "I mean, Shroud is your cousin, but he has an entire country on his side. We can still go on that second honeymoon, if you'd like." Honestly, Jules truly did want to see Shroud and the others again. But if Miko had another relapse…

"Of course I'm sure," she said before he could finish thinking. "We agreed to this earlier, Jules. You and I are a team now, but we can't let down our old team. Now, let's get a taxi, find a hotel room, and then get on with this whole mission thing." Miko walked past him, waving her hands at the passing yellow cars. She seemed normal, but as she walked past him, Jules could have sworn he saw a flame in her eyes that had not been there before…

-- 1: 54 PM, Core Plaza, Neo Arcadia --

"What do you mean he won't see us?"

"Sorry, Mr. Taruka," Shroud's underling Leite said, barring his way into the Core Building. "But Lord X has closed off the building to all but his highest level counselors, the Elite Eight."

"That's ridiculous!" Shroud said, turning away with distaste.

"What do you mean?" Matthias asked, waiting at the bottom of the steps. "What's the Elite Eight?"

"It's a group of counselors that X has formed to help advise him on day-to-day affairs within the city. Four are netnavis, and four are humans. The only problem with this particular scenario is that the four netnavis are his 'children', and the four humans are Drs. Cain, Gate, Weil, and Lumina." Shroud reached one of the tables beside the nearby café and sat, while Matthias rolled into an open space.

"So basically, he and his generals are planning how to defeat the Vile 5 best, and probably how to tie us in with the bargain."

"Exactly." A waiter came by to ask their order, and Shroud spoke up right away. "Something with lots of caffeine in it. How about you, Matthias?"

"Just coffee." The waiter nodded and left, returning a few moments later with their drinks.

"Here is your coffee, sir, and then this is our triple caffeine lemon latte, the most caffeinated thing on our menu." Shroud looked at the middle-aged waiter oddly, but then took the drink and pulled the lemon garnish off of its edge before taking a sip of it.

"So what's next, Shroud?" Matthias inquired, adding some sugar to his beverage. "If we can't win over X, he's going to have that press conference tomorrow, and then it's only a matter of time before the Vile 5 drops that satellite on us."

Shroud ignored the abrupt dilation of his pupils and leaned over the table, to keep their words from being overheard. "Well, perhaps later this evening, I might be able to get into the building and mess with some files. It might delay the conference a day or two. But the Chaos Union needs to hold a meeting, and soon, too. Tomorrow would be best, if possible."

"What's this I hear about another meeting of the Chaos Union?"

Shroud whipped around to see who was behind him, and was quite startled when he didn't recognize the couple that stood there at first. But slowly, looking at the woman, and imagining her with a red jumpsuit instead of a red business suit…"Mikoto? Is that you?"

She nodded, and hurried over to give her cousin a hug. Matthias, on the other hand, had recognized J.G. first, and rolled over to shake his hand. The two of them exchanged a few words while Mikoto greeted Shroud, and then they switched, Mikoto hugging Matthias and muttering her condolences while J.G. walked over to Shroud.

"So, you're the guy that my dear cousin ended up with, J.G?" he said, giving him a friendly hug. "I always did wonder who she'd dropped off the map with."

"Well, you did a fairly good job of vanishing yourself, considering you were under arrest for murder at the time." J.G. hadn't changed much, but his name had. "And I choose not to go by my initials anymore. It's just Jules now. Jules Yukamara."

"Yukamara?" Shroud asked, as the four of them sat around the table again, Mikoto and 'Jules' pulling up chairs. "Last I checked, Yukamara started with a Y, not a G."

"It was just a way to escape the aftermath of our disbanding. It was hard trying to maintain a job when people saw you as a traitor to your country. So after Miko and I got married," and at this Jules' hand intertwined with Mikoto's own, "we both changed our last names to Yukamara, and moved into my old home in Swampopolis. Since then, I've just been working as a programmer, and one of the only decent ones in the country."

"No kids?" Matthias asked, finishing off his coffee.

"Just one," Mikoto said, her eyes brimming with pride. "Kitsune. Your son recently met him, didn't he tell you?"

"No," Matthias said, now quite interested. "I haven't spoken to Luke in a week. How would the two of them have met?"

"Apparently they challenged each other to a netbattle, and afterwards realized that they shared parents from the Chaos Union. Kitsune said that his netnavi was quite strong too. Ion, or something like that."

"Aeon." As Matthias spoke, a light went into his eyes, and Shroud wondered what he had realized. But he never found out, as Matthias quickly changed the subject. "So, what are you two doing here? Did X contact you?"

"No," Jules replied. "Luke told Kitsune that you all were on some sort of mission. After he told us, Miko and I decided to come and help, and so here we are."

"So what are we doing, Shroud?" Mikoto asked. "What's the big crisis?"

"Mikoto…a satellite is probably going to destroy this city within a week, and so far, we've got no way of stopping it."

Shroud's words brought silence to the table, but Mikoto was never one to be depressed by the odds. "Well, then. Let's get the gang back together and figure out what to do with this thing."


	10. Plans of Attack

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters and concepts are the lifetime property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** I really hope that you enjoy this chapter, because it was a great one to write, and that as much as anything is why this is my first update on time without any hiatuses in a while. Some plotlines are being developed, and certain characters are becoming more prominent, even gaining POVs. In addition, the new Chaos Union is starting to take form in this chapter. So keep your eyes open so that you don't miss anything, and enjoy!

-

_If there was one good thing that their struggle with his brother had taught the Chaos Union, it was knowing the benefits of your team was absolutely imperative. After all, his classification of his Vizier, Bishop, Knight, and Rook was exact, the very four people that he would have chosen, given the chance. Even his secondary 'pieces' were near exact, if not quite accurate. In response, Shroud had chosen to embrace the idea in his own fashion, after finally crippling Checkmate enough that they were no longer a threat, despite Alex's shouts that it was only a stalemate. As such, all Chaos Union missions were undertaken with 5 members, the subordinate four chosen by whoever led the team on a given mission._

_Today, Shroud had considered going himself, but he had convinced him to stay at Headquarters. The mission didn't require his expertise, and Shroud Taruka was slowly rising to the top of several terrorist's hit lists, and this was going to be a high profile mission. For the first time in a year or so, the world would know what one of the Chaos Union's missions was._

_Shroud had gotten back at him in the end, selecting Link to lead the mission. Normally, Matthias wouldn't have cared, but he was feeling a bit spiteful as of late, and hadn't spoken to Shroud for a day or two. He fingered the engagement ring box in his pocket to keep his mind off of Irine's daughter, Shroud's daughter, and then looked out the window at the countryside around them. They were headed into the newly-christened Scitown, to meet with Dr. Hikari and discover what he needed them to guard him for. Whatever it was had to be important, or the ONB would have been enlisted, and only one or two of them were on a list for a mission of such a caliber._

_As Link's 'Bishop', SH had volunteered to drive, and so this left Link free to turn around and speak with the three of them in the back seats. "All right, everyone. Matthias and I are in charge, so let us do the talking. Lica, I know that you feel you should be higher up because you and I are the only ONB here, but that's too bad. Hikari specifically asked for Matthias, and you're better at guarding our backs anyways. First sign of trouble and you Cross Fuse, got it?"_

_Matthias looked back at Lica, sitting in the back seat as far away from everyone as she could get. Ever since Brian and Aelita had gotten married and left the Union, she'd barely been civil enough to live with. Still, she curtly nodded, and then resumed her study of the outdoors. Link took this as agreement, and continued. "Chris, you're here because the ONB and Scitown both know of your involvement with that ninjitsu academy of yours, so just stand tall and look menacing."_

_"I can do that," he replied, and Matthias believed it. Chris had been absent of late, studying at the academy where Shroud had learned several ninjitsu skill that had made him the formidable opponent he was today. The only difference was that while both had completed the initial training, Chris desired to return for initiation into the academy's ranks, as a full-fledged member. Shroud was hesitant to let him go, considering he was one of the few members who could defend themselves without Cross Fusion or a copyroid, but Matthias had heard him tell Chris that as long as he stayed on for this last mission, he'd cut him loose._

_"All right, everyone," SH said, parking outside the complex. "We're here." He opened his door first, and the others followed, Matthias sliding his forward so that Lica could get out without climbing over everything. He offered a hand to her, but she pushed past him, nearly knocking him onto the pavement. That would have looked wonderful in the tabloids._

_"Listen, Lica," he began as they began walking towards the building. "I understand how you feel, but..."_

_"Really?" she said, rounding on him and causing the others to stop. "That's funny, because I don't think that Shroud and Irine have a clue, do they?" A silence hung over them like a cloud, until Lica broke it by walking straight past all of them, heading for the complex. Matthias sighed and moved to walk beside Link and SH, Chris following behind like the menacing figure they'd portrayed him as._

_A few minutes later, they were in Dr. Hikari's lab, and he, SH, and Link were seated at a table across from the good doctor himself, with Lica leaning against a nearby blackboard and Chris standing at the door. "I'm so glad that you all could be here," Dr. Hikari said, taking a sip of the warm tea only SH had accepted. "Now, I've asked you to come here because I am on the brink of unveiling a new project that will revolutionize the world. Unfortunately, someone has managed to discover what I am planning, and they want to stop me from achieving it, by any means necessary."_

_"Which means that you need us," Link said, exactly as planned._

_"Exactly," Dr. Hikari replied. "Perhaps this brief overview might convince you to invest your resources in my...life extension?" He pulled a clipboard off of the adjacent endtable and passed it to Link. His face was a mask for the first few pages, but as he flipped through, his eyes began to grow wide._

_"Is this...is this even possible?"_

_"I would like to try," Dr. Hikari said. "The city will be built on an island that Scitown is currently utilizing to test out their New Land program, and it's free for development. The city and Mr. Famous are already behind me, and they are ready to make it a reality. All we need is your help to make it so." Link passed the clipboard wordlessly to Matthias, and his eyes slowly began to open as widely as his had._

_"This city," Matthias asked hesitantly, "what would you call it?"_

_Dr. Hikari smiled. "Neo Arcadia."_

_Link and Matthias looked at each other a moment, and then Link turned back to Hikari. "Tell your superiors that the Chaos Union will do whatever it takes to make Neo Arcadia a reality."_

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

**_Chapter 9: _**_Consulta Impetus_

_- _

-- Friday, April 4, 11: 59 PM, Core Plaza, Neo Arcadia --

At precisely a minute before noon, on April 4th, X exited the front doors of the Core Building. Instantly, photographer's flashes blinded him, but he took no notice, the well-trained eye picking out the fact that his eyes were shaded; a method to cut glare. He walked purposefully, and ascended the steps to the dais at the center of the plaza, raised especially for this occasion. On any other day, the dais would be the same level as the remainder of the plaza, but it had been designed to elevate itself when necessary, as it was today.

As a result, X's feet were now roughly level to the faces of the reporters, and with a height of exactly seven feet, they were forced to step backwards and tilt their cameras upwards, which made him look much more formidable than he was. And X was certainly formidable. He adjusted the papers on the podium before him, but nearly everyone there with any intellect at all knew that this was a simple stalling tactic to finish formulating his thoughts. After all, X was designed to make speeches such as this, and any notes he might actually have were stored within his databanks, not scraps of paper.

The clocktower at the summit of the Core Building chimed the hour, letting its resounding peals echo throughout the city, a dozen in all. As the last chime faded into the distance, X raised his right arm outward, a look of passion in his face. "Can you imagine never hearing those chimes again? Never hearing the bells of noon ringing in your ears, or the ears of your children? Neo Arcadia has existed for nearly twenty years now, and since the first day that those bells were placed, they have never ceased to ring at precisely twelve o'clock noon, every single day. Now, there are some, perhaps even some here, listening at this very moment, perhaps even someone standing right beside you, who wishes to silence these bells."

Whispers and murmurings flooded the crowd, which shifted unsteadily, but X never ceased in his oration.

"They wish to strike our nation and our city from history, leaving us as nothing but a footnote in the history of the great war they are preparing to instigate. They feel we are the perfect target, because we are a nation against all others, a nation alone, but a nation of vital importance to the world. And they are correct!"

More murmuring and whispers, and the guards surrounding the plaza slowly reached for their lightsticks.

"We are the weakest nation in the world, because in the near score of years that we have existed upon this earth, we have never gained a friendly ally, one who will come to our aid if we ask it of them. No nation has dared form any sort of treaty with us, for fear of being attacked by other nations. Until now. A hand of friendship has been extended to us, and I intend to take it!" X grasped the air before him, striking a pose that would later grace the cover of Time Online. The flashes of cameras that froze the moment in history were soon drowned out by the noise of clamoring reporters, and X raised his hands outward, commanding and receiving silence. He pointed at several reporters, each delivering their questions in turn.

"Lord X, which nation has consulted you for peace? And is there any truth to the rumors that the conspirators are agents of Creamland?"

"I cannot say who has joined with us, simply because they have asked I keep it a secret until the actual signing of our treaty. And any rumors of Creamland interference are simply rumors. Creamland is among to the few nations to pay little or no attention to us, and only someone foolish would believe they would give up their strict policy of isolationism to take a few jabs at a country such as ours." A thin twist went through X's mouth as he spoke, clearly such a question had never even been considered for prepared answers, and he seemed to dislike that it had been planted in a reporter's mind.

The crowd's voices rose up again with this new information, but one reporter made herself heard. "Is it true that several of the instigators of this rebellion are from high positions within your bureaucracy?" An advisor standing near X made a move towards his radio, planning to contact security, but X forestalled him by extending his left hand, arcing a near-invisible jolt of energy towards the staff member.

"I shall answer this question," he said quietly, almost too quietly to hear. "I do not fear the 'Vile 5'." He raised his voice, and addressed the crowd directly. "In council yesterday, with my Guardians, I was counseled not to comment upon this matter. But I feel it is too important to not mention it, and so I shall. The rebellion against our nation is lead by a group of five scientists, who are calling themselves the Vile 5. As rumor says, these five traitors are from very high positions in my hierarchy. But my counsel tells me that you should not know how high the corruption goes. I disagree."

"The Vile 5 consists of the four human members of my Elite Eight, highest of my advisors, and the insane scientist who formerly occupied one of its positions. Their names are Isabel Lumina, Adrian Doppler, Alan Gate, Victor Weil, and Thomas Cain, and their names are anathema to my country now. They are outlaws and outcasts, and no remorse will be shown towards them once they have been defeated. They are to be captured alive, and no place is safe for them. We will find them. No further questions."

The reporters were thrilled to have this new outlook upon the war, but X's sudden departure startled them, and they attempted to rush the Core Building for more questioning, stopped only by the copyroid guards X had enlisted for the day. He stopped in front of the doorway to the building, and turned to face his people again.

"Never forget who leads you! And never forget why this nation exists! This nation exists because of a man named Yuichirou Hikari, and because of the sacrifice he made on this exact site so many years ago! If we forget who we are, we die!" His plea caught the lens of every camera in the plaza, and then every camera watched as six angelic wings sprouted from the back of their leader, lifting him into the skies of Neo Arcadia.

* * *

-- 5: 12 PM, Room 1015, Ciel Hotel, Eta Complex, Neo Arcadia -- 

"That was Lord X speaking at the Core Plaza earlier today. As you can see, Lord X took flight shortly after the press conference, and has not returned to either the Core Building or his private estates in Kappa Complex. The Sage General, Harpuia, has taken over the running of the city over the last few hours in his stead, and has stated only that he and his siblings know of X's whereabouts, and are not being allowed to divulge them to the media. One can only assume that Lord X simply needs what many of us could use as well, a little time off. Now, as we move on to our coverage of the Arcadian military effort…"

Shroud turned off the television with the remote, but Juno kept on recording the broadcast from within the system, in case anything important was said. "Now, a majority of you were there for the ceremony, correct?" Jules and the others in the room nodded, all ten of them. The entire Chaos Union had gathered together to plan, and they had decided that with their numbers, his and Miko's large suite was the best way to go, and it was. The large living room in the middle was at least as large as one in a regular home, and housed two couches and a pair of recliners. In addition, the kitchen beside the room had no doorway separating it, and Brian and Alistor could listen while they cooked food for the group. The Chaos Union had always had voracious appetites.

"I think that I was the only one to miss it, as far as I know," Matthias said, supposedly having not wanted to risk the crowds with his new wheelchair, which he still hadn't mastered the controls to.

"I wasn't there," Brian said from the kitchen. "I had some business that couldn't wait, and I got there just as X was taking flight." That seemed odd, but Jules shrugged it off. Whatever Brian was doing for a living, it seemed vaguely secretive, and his netnavi was off doing more 'business' right then. Still, he'd have to discuss it with him later, because Shroud was now standing and continuing to speak.

"Well, since you've seen this at least, let's break it down before I start revealing state secrets." A hesitant chuckle rolled through the room. Agents of Neo Arcadia or not, X could probably have their heads for this, if he felt like it. "Now, X started by playing on the crowd's emotions, so I don't think that we need to go over that. But the really important part of his initial speech is where he mentions this hand of friendship." As he spoke, the first picture popped up on the screen, a picture of a world map.

Jules studied the map from the loveseat he was on, Miko curled up against him under his arm. There was Swampopolis, one of the medium-sized isles to the south of westerly Netopia, and then the surrounding islands, some bigger than his own, such as Pavo's home country of Mexico, and some smaller, such as the nation-state of Hyrule, of which Link was apparently the Prince. It was odd once you thought of how their fates had gone. Some of them had fallen on hard times, like he and Shroud, while others had ended up royalty. Granted, Link seemed to dislike ruling, leaving it to his Council of Sages, but he was royalty nonetheless.

To the east of Netopia was the larger nation of Electopia; although large was only in comparison, since both were roughly the size of continents. In between were a few easterly islands of the International Archipelago, as the islands south of Netopia were called, and then the two great island nations, Creamland and Neo Arcadia. Creamland had grown, conquering all opposition around the capital city known as Capital City, and now ruling over the entire island, and holding naval supremacy for miles around. As for Neo Arcadia, it was more southerly, a bit past the equator, and slowly growing due to its revolutionary New Land technology, which was slowly increasing its size in the form of the Twilight Desert.

Directly east of Electopia was Sharo, and Electopia had never been more aware of that than of late. Sharo's icy borders kept intruders out, but they had recently invaded Kingland, the island nation off the coast of the continent, and little had been heard since. They were also rumored to be currently attempting to invade Chiona, but that country was silent enough as it was, and Jules knew nothing. The Free States of Yumfrica were thriving though, the new union between Yumland and Netfrica being a benefit financially and militarily, and Sharo seemed to have no intentions of attacking them. Which, of course, worried Electopia all the more.

Nation Z was still silent as always, tucked below and between Yumfrica and Netopia. They had been thoroughly defeated by Electopia and Netopia years before, with the help of the Chaos Union themselves, but in recent years, rumors of insurgence had been floating around. Electopia was ignoring them, but Jules had noticed the worry in Netopia, a worry that almost equaled the worry that they felt about Neo Arcadia.

His eyes finished their circuit, and he restored his attention to Shroud, who was discussing the fact that the treaty X obliquely referred to was between them and Sharo, and that it was as much help as hindrance. "While Sharo is an incredibly strong nation, it is also at odds with a majority of the other free nations of the world. By aligning with them, X is playing a game of chance, and hoping that no one will attack Neo Arcadia because of the alliance."

"Isn't it possible that X has managed to gain the support of another country rather than Sharo?" Miko said, sitting up a bit straighter. "After all, perhaps he's trying to call everyone's bluff. The Vile 5 think that he's allying himself with Sharo, so finding allies of a different sort would throw them off balance."

"That's highly unlikely, Mikoto," SH said from his position in the left recliner. "Matthias and I listened to a conversation between the members of the Vile 5 that implied that the alliance with Sharo was not a crucial matter for them. They might attack regardless of who X allies the country with, so he has nothing to lose by following in their plans. Regardless, he intends on sending us to stop the Vile 5 as soon as he discovers where their new base of operations is, so it doesn't matter what X does at this point. We'd be better off running the search mission, as I've said before."

"And as I continually keep responding, SH, we can't do anything to help them if X won't let us into his confidence," Chris replied. He was in the opposite recliner, and had very little patience for SH's passive methods today. "What we need to do is gain the trust of one of X's Generals. Are there any you speak to on a regular basis, Shroud?"

The team looked over to Shroud with hope, but he shook his head. "I rarely see Leviathan and Phantom, and Harpuia generally refuses to deal with anything other than the running of the city while in charge. That leaves only Fefnir, and while he's recovered from Omega's attack, he's not likely to be civil enough to broach the subject of fellowship with us."

"Gizmo did uncover some interesting information the other day, however," Matthias said, startling a few of them. It was easy to forget that their second-in-command was there when he had changed so drastically, now confined to his wheelchair. "I sent him into the Arcadian servers to find any information he could, and he stumbled on a conversation between X and his Guardians, presumably the meeting he obliquely refers to in his speech. He didn't get to hear much, because it was towards the end of the meeting and he missed some while hiding within the system, but from what he did hear, it seems that Leviathan did suggest asking for aid from alternate sources, but was turned down, especially after she was overruled by her three brothers. In addition, something is wrong with the New Land system, although X was quick to write that off as a glitch or a virus, and X doesn't trust us, of course."

Shroud nearly choked as Matthias spoke. "Not any of us?"

"No, not all of us. After X said that, Phantom told him that he was wrong, and there were three of us that he could trust. You, Brian, and Chris."

This relieved Shroud, but only worried Jules. He could understand why X would trust someone who was working for him, especially if that someone was Shroud. But Lord X had absolutely no reason to trust Brian or Chris, much less this enigmatic Phantom, who hadn't met either of the two. "Was that the last of it then?" he asked, meaning to speak to Matthias alone after the meeting.

"Not quite," Matthias replied. "X told the Guardians that our next mission was ready to go, and that all they needed to do was find out what satellite the Vile 5 planned on using. There was a bit of discussion, but what it boiled down to was that X may have a spy within the ranks of the Vile 5. If it's true, I can't imagine why he would openly denounce their members today, but that's what Gizmo informed me happened, and I checked the meeting on his audile logs, to the same result. Either their mole has betrayed them, or X has other plans for them."

"Thanks, Matthias," Shroud said. "Did Gizmo manage to find out anything else?"

"Nope. With the only people that X trusts being netnavis, he hasn't been sending out any important documents that Gizmo can intercept. And their archives are too well-defended to crack into, so I can't get at any old messages either."

"Well, you did your best," Brian said, he and Alistor coming out of the kitchen with four pizzas in hand. The first was plain cheese, for the traditional members of their group, the second held various meats, such as pepperoni, sausage, and bacon, the third was a vegetable pizza, and the last was divided into three portions, Pavo's all-cheese, no-sauce pizza, Link's pineapple, pecan, blueberry, and artichoke pizza, and Miko's spicy pizza, made from peppers she'd snuck past customs. She rolled out of his grasp to put the portion on a plate, and Jules took a small slice to put on his own plate, before grabbing a slice of the meaty pizza as well.

Looking at Alistor as he sat down and grabbed a slice of the vegetable pizza, Jules suddenly realized he had no idea who this kid was. "Hey, maybe I just missed the memo, but who are you?"

Alistor seemed to take the rather odd request in stride, and Jules later learned he'd had the same conversation with SH, Golex, and Chris over the last few days. "I'm Raymond's nephew. He sent me initially because he couldn't make it, and I've been staying with Link and his family since then. He should be flying in this weekend though, so I'm here to relay all the information to him when he gets here."

Jules nodded and then returned his attention back to the meeting. "So, if we don't know what satellite the Vile 5 plans on using, what are we doing here?"

"Well, we did learn a few things from the conversation that SH and Matthias overheard," Pavo said between bites of his pizza. "For one, the satellite they have to highjack is Netopian, and it doesn't need to do any more than destroy the city. Based on those calculations, we can narrow our search parameters to Netopian satellites, and then look over each one to see which would be best for a kamikaze attack. I presume that Shroud has already deduced this as well?"

"You'd be presuming right, Pavo," Shroud said, bringing up a picture of the globe, with several satellites pointed out. "I believe I've narrowed it down to three satellites, the top three that I believe the Vile 5 could choose to utilize. As you can see, two are weather satellites, and the other is an entire space station, although it's currently unmanned. While it would seem that the space station is a better idea, its firewalls are incredibly powerful, and I think that the Vile 5 will choose not to use this one. Of the other two, one has a faulty heat shield, so it'll be harder to stop once it breaks through the atmosphere, but there are scientists up there now from Netopia, and they've been checked out as legit. So, the attack is most likely to be the satellite that's intact, although the space station is a close second."

"I assumed that you've forwarded this to X then," SH said, jotting something Jules couldn't read down on a napkin.

"Regrettably, no. I only received the information about the faulty satellite today, and X isn't receiving memos or emails. Harpuia may have seen it, but it's much more likely to be sitting in X's mailbox."

"So what do we do now?" Alistor asked.

"Eat pizza," Chris sardonically replied. "And hope that no one drops a satellite on us."

* * *

-- 7: 24 PM, 8498 Floppi Place, Electown, Electopia -- 

Luke still couldn't believe that his father was paralyzed, and told John so. "I mean, how could this sort of thing happen? There were almost a dozen of them there! Couldn't one of them have looked over and thought, 'Oh, I think Matthias is about to get crushed by seventeen tons of stone. I wonder if I should help him?'"

"How long has he been like this?" John asked Luke's little sister after he'd descended the steps and entered the kitchen to see her wearing a short white top and a strange red garment around her waist that was a dress around her right leg and a skirt around her left.

"Not too long. He was in shock the first 24 hours, but I think it sank in after he tripped over the sofa and sprained his ankle." Marie shrugged and opened the door to the fridge, grabbing a grape cola and popping it open.

"And what about you?" he asked, amazed at how blasé she was. "Aren't you worried that your father won't walk again?"

She shook her head. "That Chaos Union nurse over there's got a shot that'll fix him up. It'll take a few months, but he'll be fine after that. Besides, then Dad will get time to spend with that nurse, Irine What's-her-face."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Didn't you read the Chaos Chronicles, John?" Luke had given him the book after he'd finished it, and truthfully, John had just been skimming through it. It was a huge tome, full of the entire history of the Chaos Union. It wasn't as detailed as he would have hoped, but it was still a good read, all the more for being the true story of over five year's of his best friend's father's life.

"Of course I read them. But all I remember about Irine was that she was an attractive nurse who joined their team a little before they became a strike force, and ended up marrying their leader. What's so special about her?" Marie muttered something under her breath that sounded unmistakably like 'men', and John decided to press the subject. "All right then, what do you think is so special about her?"

"John," she said, looking at him with bemusement in her eyes. "You always have to make sure that you read between the lines. My father's in love with her."

John stood there a few moments before he even realized that she'd left, and hurried out of the kitchen to follow her. "Now wait a minute, what about your mother? He was in love with her, and you can't tell me that he wasn't."

"No, you're right," she said, stopping and turning towards him with her grey jacket in hand. "My father loved my mother. But if you read, actually read the words that he writes about her…you'd know that he loved Irine more. Even after he meets my mother, he still writes the same words about Irine. Personally, I think the only reason he fell in love with my mother was the result of an inverse Florence Nightingale effect, don't you?"

"Well, I suppose so, but," He suddenly realized that Marie had done it again, and was heading out the door before he had noticed. He followed her out, and saw that she was heading towards a gray convertible, being driven by a familiar-looking teenager with bizarrely silver hair. "Marie, wait!" She stopped, and he hurried down the steps to speak with her again. "Where are you going?"

"Well, you see…this is my boyfriend." She saw the look in his eyes and hurriedly said, "Oh, please don't tell Luke. He's always so overprotective. Please?"

John looked at the supposed boyfriend, who didn't appear to be too threatening, and nodded, Marie taking that as agreement and hurrying into the car. The two of them pulled away, and John walked back into the house, wondering how she'd pulled the wool over all of their eyes.

When he got back upstairs with the two iced teas Luke had asked for, he had to try very hard not to tell his friend about his sister anyways. Still, Marie trusted him, and he wasn't the kind of person to betray others. Luke, of course, noticed nothing, and pressed the cool glass against his swollen ankle before taking a sip out of it. "John, I need to ask you something," he said suddenly, as if he'd just thought about it.

John wasn't fooled though. Whatever this was, Luke had been thinking about it for a long while. "What is it, Luke?"

"John…I need to find the people who did this to my father. Not the Chaos Union, the Vile 5."

"Luke, your father and his friends are already working on that," John replied. "You can't help them from here. They'll be home in a week or so, and they can tell you all about it."

"But that's the point, John! My father's not interested in finding them, he just needs to stop them until his conscience is quelled to the point where he feels he can come home without condemning an entire city to decimation. But that's not what matters. What matters is stopping them completely, even if Neo Arcadia falls in the struggle."

"So what do you want to do, restart the Chaos Union?" he asked sarcastically, realizing too late that it was the wrong thing to say. A new light came into his friend's eyes, and he nearly leapt off the chair, limping his way over to the computer.

"John, do me a favor and find a phone card in the top drawer of my dresser, will you?"

"May I ask why?"

"Because I need to make an international call, and my dad would kill me if he saw it on our phone bill."

"Sure," he replied, setting his iced tea aside as he stood and rummaged through Luke's 'junk drawer', which held almost anything known to man. He had no idea who Luke could possibly know from another country, but he'd decided long ago not to ask questions when Luke had become slightly deranged. Finally finding a phone card underneath a few leaflets on engineering practices his dad must have given him, he grabbed it and closed the drawer, walking back over to Luke's computer, which already had his telephone service uploaded. "Who are you planning on calling then?"

"Seija," he replied quickly, bringing up the online yellow pages for Neo Arcadia and skimming through them quickly.

"The girl from the store the other day? Look, Luke, I could use a girlfriend as much as you, but personally, I like to stick within my general continent." Luke turned and glared at him, and John dropped the subject. "Anyways, what's she got to do with this?"

"She's one of us. Didn't I tell you she's Shroud's kid?"

"No. All you said was that Shroud had a daughter and two sons, just like your family. You never gave me any names."

"Well, regardless, I'm calling her so that she can get the other Chaos Union kids in Neo Arcadia online tomorrow. I'll call Kitsune later and get him to join up too. There's at least one or two in Neo Arcadia, so I'll set up a chat room for six." While he was talking, he set the phone book to search for all the Tarukas in Neo Arcadia, and then brought up Terra Net, reserving a room for them the next day around ten in the morning, with the title 'Chaos Union Redux'.

"So…should I just go home then, considering that you'll be doing this Chaos Union stuff all night?" John was a smidgen miffed, and growing a bit more inclined to keep Marie's secret.

"Of course not," Luke replied. "You don't think that I'd leave you out of this, do you? The Chaos Union took on new members all the time, and you're just going to be the first of them."

That he hadn't expected, and it floored him. He had heard the stories of the Chaos Union from the lips of both Luke and his father as a kid, and had been in awe of them a majority of his life. Now, to be put into the same category as those whose parents were actually members was close to an honor. Childish, he knew, but he still couldn't help but think of what they had accomplished, and what they might accomplish.

"Now, I'm password-locking this," Luke said over his reverie, "and the password is 'fallen', no caps. So feel free to pop in tomorrow as soon as it's open, all right?"

"Got it," John said, getting to his feet and grabbing his coat. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"What? Where are you going?"

"Well, if I'm meeting you on the net tomorrow, I need my netnavi, don't I? It's finished, but I wasn't going to pick it up until tomorrow. However, in light of the fact that I may end up in a strike force eventually, I think I might need whatever practice I can get." A thought coming to him, John smiled, and tapped a poster with the ONB logo on it hanging from Luke's wall. "And I think that I might stop in at the ONB recruitment center on my way home. After all, it's a bit easier to fight net crime when you can arrest criminals."

Luke smiled, and grabbed his wallet off of the desk. "Here, take my ID card with you and sign me up as well. If they give you trouble, either e-mail me or tell them who my dad is. That should help."

"All right," John said as he took the card. "I'll let you know what's happening tomorrow. See you then."

"Yeah, same here." The call finally began to go through as John headed for the door, and as he descended the steps towards the exit, he heard Luke say the fateful words that would change their lives.

"Hello, Mrs. Taruka. Is Seija there?"


	11. Secrets Between Friends

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the literary property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Here's another chapter in the continuing drama that is Chaotic We Stand. No new characters in this one, but nonetheless, it is an important chapter in the progression of the story. Next week, the action begins to rush forwards again, so hang on tight, and enjoy!

-

_To begin with, SH had never intended on creating the rivalry between himself and J.G. After all, the kid was six or seven years younger than him, and any conflict between them would be childish at best. But it had just seemed to happen. They'd both joined at roughly the same time, and just never really got off on the right foot. Eventually, it had exploded into a full blown rivalry, the latest encounter of which was going on today._

_He and J.G. were meeting in the Labyrinth, to duel. The concept seemed odd to SH, but J.G. had promised that he would get to choose the terms of battle. Who could refuse a chance like that? SH rolled his eyes to himself as he leaned against the walls of the elevator, pondering what scenario to play out. Medievil? Too cliched. Futuristic? Too realistic? Western? Too dusty._

_He finally settled on one as the doors opened, and he walked into the Labyrinth. The only one visible on the field was J.G. himself, the remainder of the Chaos Union being behind the glass windows of the Watchtower. He couldn't see Shroud, who'd said yesterday that he wouldn't be a party to this nonsense, but nearly everyone else was there, except for Link and Pavo, who were having another one of their 73-hour gaming sessions this weekend. They were on Hour 34, and had already consumed seven pizzas and 4 liters of soda. Each._

_"Hello, SH." J.G. said as he walked towards the center of the room. "Have you decided what our battlefield will be?"_

_"Why, yes, I have," he replied, surprisingly sharp in his retort. "Jazz, activate Scenario 64-B."_

_A series of mutterings escaped the Watchtower before Jazz soundproofed it, and SH could see zenny exchanging hands through its glass windows. J.G. looked pale, knowing that the 64 series were apocalyptic missions, but he obviously didn't realize which one. The environment began to change, shifting to a world torn by conflict, burnt and ravaged. Then, the nanotech appeared, running across the ground towards him. "Your mission," he said as the small electronic bugs began to form his exo-armor. "is to survive for 10 minutes without being destroyed by me or any of my pet nanobugs. Prepare to die."_

_Then he attacked, lunging towards J.G. in his new body. He now appeared to be a giant man-spider, with a pair of normal legs and arms, the latter having long pincerlike fingers, and two pairs of insectoid arms, extending from his torso. All of his arms lashed out at the teenager before him, but J.G. rolled aside, barely evading a direct attack. He looked around for any weapon, and saw a sword protruding from the ground at an angle. He dashed towards it, but SH sent out one of his arms like a whip, extending far enough to lash across the sword, snapping its blade with a whistle that echoed through the room. The broken edge was sent flying, but J.G. managed to snag it from the air anyways, brandishing it in time to deflect his next offensive._

_"You can't win with a broken sword!" he shouted with amusement as his whip-like appendages began to attack J.G. He defended valiantly, managing to block or evade a majority of the blows, but SH was winning over all, having six arms to fight with. After what felt like an eternity, one of SH's arms managed to disarm J.G., and knock him to the ground._

_"All right, SH! You win!" he shouted, but SH was past hearing. With a passion that he had never realized, he raised one hand in the air, and then brought it swinging down to finish J.G. with a smooth decapitation. The look on his face was truly satisfying as the guilotine that was his arm swept in to supply death._

_His satisfaction was marred by J.G.'s next expression: relief. Looking at his arm, he realized that the simulation was over, and his arm was roughly an inch from J.G., almost exactly where it would have drawn blood a second sooner. SH sighed in disbelief, and extended a hand to help up his rival. J.G. took it, but then instantly began to walk off towards the medical ward, where their new recruit Irine was presumably waiting for one of them._

_SH reached up to touch the computer that was bonded to his neck as the room began to shut itself down. He'd had very few problems with it before, since Kyra generally stayed within it to hunt down any viral infections. But he'd sent her out on a job yesterday, finding some lost data in a company's mainframe. Perhaps the computer was more sentinent than he'd thought. At any rate, he'd need a diagnostic on it._

_"Then again," he muttered almost inaudibly as he looked over at the retreating J.G., "maybe we're more of rivals than I thought."_

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

**_Chapter 10: _**_Misteri Inter Amicos_

-

-- Saturday, April 5, 10: 04 AM, Terra Net Room 49, ElecNet, CyberNet -- 

_**FallenKnowledge16 logging in.**_

_**FallenKnowledge16 has created a room.**_

_**ArcadianSaint has entered the room.**_

**FallenKnowledge16:** Seija? Is that you?

**ArcadianSaint: **Of course it is. How many other people could it possibly be? And how new is that screen name, considering that you only found out about your father's connection with the Chaos Union last week?

**FallenKnowledge16: **Only three days. I thought it was better than the one I've had for the last 3 or 4 years, TechnoKid79.

**ArcadianSaint:** Much better. Anyways, Alistor and Dakota should be on soon, I told them to be here by ten and not tell their parents.

**FallenKnowledge16: **Which reminds me, how are our parents doing, aside from my father being paralyzed and everything.

**ArcadianSaint: **Umm…not as good as they'd hoped. X came back late last night, and apparently hasn't seen anyone, not even Harpuia. My dad hasn't heard anything about the satellites either.

**FallenKnowledge16: **Hey, Seija, sometime after this is all over, maybe you could…come back to Electopia or something. You know, to hang out or whatever.

**ArcadianSaint: **Sounds great! I'd pack my things tonight, but I kind of feel like staying as long as my dad's here. To support him, you know. Although he's already told us that if they fail to stop the satellite, we're to take your dad's jet out of the city right away.

**FallenKnowledge16: **All right, well maybe you could even stay…

_**Sir-Merlo has entered the room.**_

**Sir-Merlo: **Seija, this is the room, right?

**ArcadianSaint:** Yep! Alistor, this is Luke, Matthias' son. We met right before this whole thing started.

**FallenKnowledge16:** Nice to meet you, Alistor.

**Sir-Merlo: **Likewise. Dakota will be on in a second, he's trying to figure out how to plug his laptop into the outlets here.

**ArcadianSaint:** What was he using before? He was online the other night.

**Sir-Merlo:** I let him use mine because I went to the meeting with Link. He wasn't too happy that I restricted him to a guest account though, I think he wanted to load up a copy of Penultimate Phantasm VIII on my computer.

**FallenKnowledge16: **VII was better.

**Sir-Merlo:** I know, but don't tell him that. He hasn't played it and I don't want to hear him whine about it anymore.

_**Trigger-Happy-Maniac has entered the room.**_

**Trigger-Happy-Maniac: **You know, this isn't a messenger. I can scroll up and read what you guys have already written. And just because I accidentally forget to buy the best game in the Penultimate Phantasm series after buying all the others doesn't give you the right to mock me.

**FallenKnowledge16: **I think I have a copy floating around here somewhere, Dakota. I'll send you it as long as you promise not to let Busterman chase me through any alleyways again, all right?

**Trigger-Happy-Maniac:** Deal. Now where is it?

**FallenKnowledge16: **Well I don't have copies just lying around. I'll have to make one, and that means Aeon will have to crack the anti-copying code on the disc. It might take a while.

**Trigger-Happy-Maniac: **All right, I can wait…for now…

**Sir-Merlo: **Dakota, I'm sitting right across from you. Stop writing "Luke must die" on a piece of paper.

_**FlaminKitsune has entered the room.**_

**FlaminKitsune: **Hey, Luke. Is this everyone?

**FallenKnowledge16: **Everyone except my friend John, who wanted to help out.

**ArcadianSaint: **You told someone else about this?

**FallenKnowledge16: **We're best friends. I started by telling him about my trip to Neo Arcadia, and eventually it got to this point. Anyways, he's a loyal friend, and we'll need as many loyal people as possible.

_**!Rnd()mness has entered the room.**_

**FallenKnowledge16:** Speaking of which, here he is now. Glad you could be here, John.

**!Rnd()mness: **Thanks, Luke. Is this everyone?

**FallenKnowledge16:** Yep. All right, Aeon. Let's make this visual.

-

Aeon stood within the lounge-like interior of Room 49, finishing setting in place the changes to the server that allowed for both the humans and their netnavis to converse simultaneously, instead of only one or the other. Everyone needed to be there to begin the hack, but once accomplished, the room was much improved.

"All right, Aeon. Let's make this visual."

With the semi-omnipotent voice of his NetOp ringing in his ears, Aeon pulled the switch built into the fuse box that was the visual representation of his hacking. As the lights flickered momentarily, Aeon sat in the chair that materialized below him, a picture of Luke's face appearing over the chair's back, directly behind him. The webcam setup in Luke's room would transfer his messages to the others perfectly, but Aeon hoped that the others had similar technology.

He wasn't disappointed. The images of the NetOps appeared first, and several wore a headset similar to Luke's own, an efficient method of conversing. They appeared in a circle of six, and the chairs surrounding them were quickly filled with netnavis. The chair to his left was filled by John's netnavi Chance, whose appearance changed randomly every time he left his PET. Today, he wore a navy cloak over a gray and green bodysuit, and had a spiked whip coiled at his belt. He looked over at Aeon and smiled briefly, little sparks along his fingers showing that his randomizer was working perfectly again, and then looked back around at the others, Aeon doing the same.

To his immediate right was apparently the face of Seija, the only girl so far in the group, and her netnavi below in a black chair. On a whim, Aeon tried looking into the netnavi's data strands, as Gizmo had been trying to teach him. It was similar to reading the coding of a server in preparation for hacking it, and he could eventually hack a netnavi itself, or so his mentor told him. At any rate, he could see that the navi's name was Ark, and that parts of his data were corrupted, or missing. Regardless, he seemed both frail and frightening at the same time. He was an albino, with palest white skin and pink eyes, and a grey and white bodysuit, causing his figure to almost glow in contrast to the chair he was seated in.

Beside Ark was a netnavi in bright silver armor, with two swords sheathed behind his back. The armor looked as if it was a struggle to wear outside of battle, but the netnavi seemed not to care. Above his head materialized a teenager that Aeon didn't know, but from the brief description Seija had given them over the phone last night, it had to be Alistor Merlo, and his netnavi Bladeknight.

Directly across from them sat another well-armored netnavi, this one in camouflage that was vastly unsuited for sitting in a lounge, a mix of greens and browns. Presumably, this was Busterman, and his coloration shifted into a mix of blues, while the cannon attached to his right arm morphed itself into a Bubbler. Above, a child could be seen, and this must have been Dakota. Aeon was surprised that a kid who couldn't be more than 12 was joining them, but kept his mouth shut.

The last of them was Metro, who Aeon had met earlier, although he was not wearing the battle armor that he had been last time. Instead, he wore a light robe of some kind, of a scarlet shade. Upon it was a golden fox rampant, and Aeon had to admit that the robe suited the fiery warrior, perhaps more than his armor did. "So, what's up, Luke?" Kitsune said from over his head. "What are we all meeting for?"

"Well," Luke replied, "I gathered you all here because I think that the six of us should try to destroy the Vile 5."

"You mean reform the Chaos Union?" Seija asked. "That sounds great, Luke, but what about our parents? I can't imagine that they'll be too pleased with us attacking terrorists."

"Not to mention the fact that the Chaos Union is hunting the Vile 5 already," Bladeknight replied. "Alistor and I have battled one of their navis already, and they're no pushover. Why don't we let the real Chaos Union take care of it?"

"Because they aren't taking care of it!" Luke said, Aeon noting the fact that he was beginning to lose his audience's interest. "All my father wants to do is stop the satellite and get the movement of his legs back. And I'm sure there are several members who feel the same way. After all, Alistor, your uncle's only flying in today to keep you from having to fight. The Chaos Union isn't going to do anything more than stop them this time and then leave Neo Arcadia and the rest of the world to pick up the pieces."

"If it's any consolation, Luke, I agree with you," Kitsune said. "My parents only went because of their relation to Shroud. Someone needs to hunt down the Vile 5 for the sake of hunting the Vile 5." Beside him, both Dakota and John nodded, and their navis expressed their agreement briefly as well.

"Well, it sounds like a good idea in theory," Seija said, "but we can't really do anything, not legally. We're powerless. I think that we should just leave the Vile 5 alone and let the Chaos Union do what they can."

Kitsune opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but before he could say anything, a loud siren began to blare, and Aeon leapt from his chair with a mild oath. "A mod's trying to get in! Everyone, log out now before they lock us in here!"

"Too late," Ark said meekly. "We can't escape." Aeon paid no heed to him, and hurried for the fuse box, hoping that he could reach it in time. He couldn't.

"Attention," the moderator said as he materialized in Aeon's path. "You are in direct violation of the Terms and Conditions, Paragraph 5, Lines 8 through 10, which state that: 'There are to be no variations of any kind to the chat rooms. This includes, but is not limited to, the editing of any censoring, an attempt to turn the room into a server of any kind, utilizing it for a purpose other than chatting, and attempting to break into Terra Net servers through the room. Any attempt will be construed as hacking, whether it is successful or not." The moderator was now completely solid, and was reciting his lines by rote, with his eyes unfocused. However, Aeon recognized the figure, and so did some of the others.

"Pedro?" John asked from behind, realizing that the small avatar was the juvenile programmer he'd met several days before.

Pedro himself blinked, and seemed to realize for the first time that he had taken form in the room. "Well, that's odd. This is an interesting bit of hacking you've done here. Perhaps if you cooperate, I'll let you off with a warning so that I can suggest the idea to my superiors." He then studied the netnavis and people that were in the room, and recognized Aeon first. "Well, if it isn't Project: Fallen himself! You've certainly gotten yourself into trouble this time, haven't you?"

"Pedro, listen. Let us out of here, will you? I'll even leave the hacking up so that you can study it." Aeon gestured to the fuse box behind Pedro, and he turned to look at it a minute.

"Yes…it's tempting…but perhaps I should ask you and your friends a few questions first. Now, what were you all doing here?"

Aeon looked at the others, and Luke gave him a faint shake of his head. Unfortunately, before he could respond, Busterman's voice was heard. "We're going to restart the Chaos Union." As the collective group began to glare at the netnavi, he simply shrugged, before proceeding to fire Bubblers aimlessly into the air.

"Well, this changes everything," Pedro said, a strange look in his eyes.

* * *

-- 10: 15 AM, Lambda Complex, Neo Arcadia -- 

Peter Hurr carefully leapt across the gap between the two buildings, hoping that his contact had been correct about the location of his target. Sure enough, as he approached the edge of the rooftop, he could see his client below, walking past the window of a two-room apartment. The Lambda Complex didn't have decent housing, but it was easy to get an apartment there, and it kept you out of the government's vision.

Peter had been following his mysterious client ever since he'd left his office back in Electopia, and had only lost him twice. The first time was at the airport, where a combination of security checkpoints and bad luck had kept him from tailing him closely, and then again recently, when Peter had strayed into a bit too much sunlight to get a better view. However, he didn't seem too perturbed by the encounter, and simply packed his bags and vanished, presumably to this new apartment.

Pulling out a pair of binoculars, Peter scanned the apartment through the window, seeing very little of it. Still, he saw enough to note that this was truly the person that he was looking for, and that they had a pistol lying on their desk. Surgeonman's PET suddenly pulsed at his belt, and he pressed the talk button on it, feeding his words directly into the headset he was wearing. "What's up, Surgeonman?"

"Your dad's on the line. Should I have him call back?"

"No, I'm good," he replied, moving along the rooftop so that he couldn't be directly seen from the window. "Patch him through."

A few seconds later, Peter heard his father's voice come over the line. "Hey, Peter. What's your status?"

"I've found the target's domicile," he quickly replied, "he's in Lambda Complex still, just in a new portion of it."

"Excellent," SH responded. "Keep up the good work. Shroud thinks that X will agree with our proposal, so as soon as we get the word, we're heading into space. Keep an eye on this guy in the meantime, alright?"

"Got it. Thanks, Dad."

"No problem. Remember, think of this as practice." The line went dead, and Peter moved back into his prior position. Now, all he had to do was wait.

-

The 'target' paced back and forth in front of the window again, making sure that the child on the rooftop across could see him. He then sat at the desk beside his bed and opened his laptop, activating the camera he'd placed on the rooftop opposite earlier. It gave him a good view of Peter Hurr, and he watched as the teenager moved to a new position and began talking to someone via a headset of some sorts. He hadn't equipped any audio devices to the camera, but he knew the look of someone reporting to their superiors.

It seemed that the Hurr Repossession Agency wanted him for some reason, and it obviously was dire enough to send a relatively untrained operative for the job. Perhaps they felt that he would lead them to Shroud, but if so, they were wrong. He had no intention of betraying him to them, despite what they might think. So, he'd been forced to play this game of cat-and-mouse with young Hurr, although his pursuer had no idea that he was the mouse.

As such, he couldn't reach Shroud, and that meant that he couldn't help him. He'd picked up a few rumors in the streets, including the reformation of the Chaos Union, but nothing coherent enough to go by. If only he knew the members…if Steve had rejoined, there was no need for this subterfuge. But if not, then revealing himself and contacting Shroud would lead to his capture, and there was still a high bounty on his head in Electopia. It seemed a catch-22, and he knew no other alternative to the choices he had. It seemed that he would have to sit here alone, until the Hurrs gave up, or all hell broke loose. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

-- 10: 18 AM, Terra Net Room 49, ElecNet, CyberNet -- 

Metro looked around the room cautiously. It seemed that this moderator that had entered the room knew Aeon and his NetOp, and the NetOp beside him seemed to know him as well. To be honest, Metro knew very little about this John, but he had faced his netnavi Chance a couple of weeks ago, and the navi was a formidable foe. If they were truly restarting the Chaos Union, John and Chance would be excellent members to replace those that were lost, such as Brian or Lica.

At any rate, Aeon and Pedro seemed to have finished their silent conversation and were approaching the group, the former looking glad yet worried, and the latter all smiles. "All right, everyone. This is Pedro. Supposedly, he's one of us; Pavo's kid."

"What?" Seija said, trying to get a better look from her window. "Pavo doesn't have a kid, does he?" Dakota muttered agreement, but Alistor didn't look so sure.

"I don't know, guys. Pavo did mention a boy while we were in the underground base, but he never said it was his son."

"I'm not his son. I'm adopted," Pedro replied. "He found me during his first campaign in a city that had been stricken by plague. My mother had died and he took me in as his son. I've lived with him ever since."

"That works then," Alistor said. "It fits with everything I heard."

Personally, Metro agreed. The story that Pedro had just recited seemed both plausible and complicated enough to be true. Still, the boy looked familiar, but that was impossible if he was no direct relation to Pavo. He shrugged off the feelings and spoke up. "Well, if he's joining us, then let's get on with this."

"Yes, let's," Aeon said as a chair materialized for their newest arrival. "Now, Pedro, our purpose for reforming the Chaos Union is to hunt down and defeat the Vile 5, who are the five traitors that attempted to kill our parents."

"That makes sense," Pedro said. "My dad sent me an email detailing the events of the cave-in a few days ago, so I get a general idea of who we're dealing with. And he also mentioned a majority of you in his email, so I know everyone except you." He was pointing at Kitsune and Metro, and his NetOp volunteered the appropriate information.

"I am Kitsune Yukamara, son of Jules and Mikoto Yukamara. Your father may have known mine as J.G."

"Oh, yes, I know you now. He mentioned that two of the old members had married each other. It must have been your parents." Metro and Kitsune nodded in unison, and then Luke took hold of the meeting again.

"Now, since over half of us are currently in the wrong country, I propose that we start with a two-fold approach. Seija, Dakota, and Alistor, since you are in Neo Arcadia with the Chaos Union, you must do whatever you can to discover what the Chaos Union is doing at all times. Divide the duties up as best you can, and report back to me whenever possible." Seija and Alistor looked hesitant, but Dakota and their netnavis looked enthusiastic, and Metro supposed that was the best they could hope for.

"As for the rest of us," Luke continued, "we shall do whatever we can to track the Vile 5, via satellites and the Arcadian databanks. It will probably be easier for us to break into their systems from another country, which is why we are doing it rather than Seija and the others. In addition, we should be checking the movements of other nations as well, especially Sharo and Netopia. I'll talk to you all later on the best way to accomplish this. Until then, any questions?"

No one responded, so Luke began to finish speaking. "All right, in that case, this meeting is adjourned. Before I go, I would like to suggest that you all consider joining the ONB, or perhaps an equivalent force from your home district. John and I have already submitted applications, and the license that we will soon receive enables us to reach more secure databases. It is not required, but I figured that I would just suggest it, in case anyone was interested. I look forward to our next meeting." With that, Aeon jacked out with Luke's window vanishing along with, and John, Seija, Dakota, and Alistor soon followed his example, logging out and taking their netnavis with them.

This left the room half-empty, only Metro, Kitsune, and Pedro within it. Metro began to log out as well, but a hailing from Pedro stopped him in his tracks. "Hang on, you two! Wait up!" He looked over at Pedro, and then towards Kitsune, who nodded. Metro advanced, and Pedro began to speak again. "Listen, I know that Luke was trying to help with his suggestion of joining the ONB, but I don't think it's going to help, do you?"

Metro was initially startled, but suddenly realized that Pedro spoke the truth. It didn't do any good to ally yourself with the enemies of a nation you're trying to preserve. "You're right," Kitsune said from behind him. "So what are you suggesting?"

"Well, Neo Arcadia isn't a popular spot to be right now, so prices on international flights to and from that location aren't very expensive right now. In addition, I've heard rumors that X is starting to form a group of official netbattlers as well…for his nation."

"So…"

"So…perhaps you would be interested in visiting Neo Arcadia once this whole thing is over."

Metro was startled, but Pedro spoke the truth. As members of the small nations that existed in the International Archipelago, their citizenship of those nations was easily ignored, and Swampopolis even allowed its citizens to maintain citizenship after being naturalized into another nation. It would be easy to become a citizen of Neo Arcadia, and after that, they could join their netbattler's army. But it wasn't really Metro's decision, because he had no indication of leaving Kitsune.

But his NetOp was of the same opinion as he, and said, "I've always wanted to see Neo Arcadia. Let me know when you're leaving. Metro, let him have our address, will you?"

"With pleasure," he replied, pulling a business card out of the pocket of his robe, Kitsune's e-mail address glowing gold upon it. "Let us know when you're leaving, and we'll be right alongside."

"All right, Metro, let's head out." Metro nodded and jacked out with Kitsune, leaving Pedro alone in the room.

* * *

-- Sunday, April 6, 3: 33 PM, Xyber Boulevard, Electown, Electopia -- 

Xyber Boulevard was the shopping center of Electown, with almost any type of store that you could think of along one of the two sides, except for an electronics store. They were nearly everywhere else in the city. But if you needed something that wasn't electrical in Electown, you came here first, to the outdoor mall that was a gathering point for women of all kinds, spurned by their male acquaintances for the glow of an electronics store. There were some men there, to be sure, but very few came of their own volition. In such a crowd, it was easy for one to slip seamlessly amongst the masses, and become nearly invisible.

This had been quite useful for Prelude. All that she had needed do was materialize in the real world in a secure location, don some normal clothing, and then walk the mall without any real purpose. Of course, she did have a real purpose, but it involved appearing to have no purpose. So, accidentally-on-purpose, she wandered towards the food court, where Minuet said that she was to meet her.

Prelude and Minuet had been working together for several months now, working to defeat Nocturne and wrest control of the Dark Union away from him. Once that was accomplished, the two of them would either overthrow or ally themselves with the Underking, and become leaders of the Undernet. Neither of them had any particular inclination to evil, but neither did Serenade, and he ruled efficiently. Prelude hoped that he would simply join them. She didn't want to delete her role model.

Prelude expected difficulty finding Minuet, considering that they rarely were out of armor, but she saw her fairly quickly, waving goodbye to a pair of children. She walked towards her table and sat down, greeting Minuet as she did so. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Our allies," Minuet coolly replied, taking a sip of the strawberry smoothie she was drinking. Her friend had always had a bit of a sweet tooth.

"Those two kids? Minuet, you promised us good NetOps, not juveniles."

"How are we going to convince anyone with a netnavi to take us on, Prelude? Besides, I didn't just choose them because they're fresh meat. I chose them for their genetics." She pulled a pair of folders out of her purse and set them on the table, drinking her smoothie slowly as Prelude studied them. Truth to be told, she was liking their odds a bit better the more she read this.

"How did you convince them to join you?" she asked. "The boy's known for his secrecy and the girl's father is one of the leading gadgeteers in the world. How do you get people like that to try and take over the Undernet?"

"The boy was easy. His father's been training him for a similar task for years, and I believe he thinks that he'll be able to do both. And the girl…the girl has been a part of this plan from the beginning." That last was nearly a whisper, and Prelude wondered again what Minuet's past held. She had never told her a thing about her life before the Dark Union, and had actually become violent once after she'd asked. Apparently, her past was a closed door, but something told Prelude that she'd soon have to open that door if there was any chance of perfect trust being formed between them.

"Well, at any rate, I managed to get ahold of the Vile 5 on behalf of our Quintet," Prelude said. "I met with Lumine in the Fallen City, and he said that all the Vile 5 was waiting for was our help taking over the station. When are you going to be ready to hack into the station?"

Minuet laughed at that, a light giggle that brought an image of happier days to Prelude. "I could be ready in an instant, but Nocturne doesn't know that, and neither do those fools in the Vile 5. Still, the Chaos Union needs a bit of time to regroup and plan, so that they are ready to fight when I strike. But if I wait too long…" She trailed off, obviously weighing the benefits and disadvantages against each other. "Tell them that I will need at least three days to prepare, Prelude. Tell them that Thursday is the day they will bring down Neo Arcadia."


	12. Departure

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the mental property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Another week, another chapter. This one was easy to write, especially because of the way the middle portion is structured, so I was able to finish it on time, for once. On the other hand, next week's is a huge fight scene, and so far those have been hard to do. To top it all off, I'm going on vacation from Monday to Wednesday, and I won't be able to do any writing while there. So, if I don't bring out another chapter next week, that's why, and I won't take a week's break after the satellite crash either as I said I would. Enjoy!

-

_Shroud, Matthias, and Link climbed down the ladder into the depths of Mount Belenus. The volcano had been the headquarters of several evil forces over the past several years, including the Dark Union, but they hoped that their efforts today would cause the world to see Mount Belenus in a brighter light: as the newest home of the Chaos Union. The Chaos Union had previously been staying in offices at NAXA, where Matthias' father worked, but after the numerous attacks by the Dark Union, the scientists there were pushing for their eviction, and they were quite close to making that push a reality._

_Shroud himself was one of the reasons for that eviction. While under the control of his DarkSoul, he had formed a group known as the Dark Union to attack the Chaos Union from both without and within, ceasing only after he and his netnavi Shadow X had been simultaneously defeated by Matthias and Galaxyman, courtesy of their powerful Full Synchro. The final blow destroyed Shroud's darkness, and caused it to revert into his psyche rather forcefully, nearly killing him. He'd been in the hospital for a week or two recovering, and had discovered once he'd returned that while Link and Matthias were both his lieutenants, Matthias had clearly begun to stand out as the higher ranked of the two. It was a good shift in the balance of power, one that Shroud might find useful in the days to come._

_But for today, they both were needed, because if the Chaos Union was to move here, all three would be needed, to vote on whether or not it would be a good move. They needed to move out of NAXA soon, or they'd be out on the street. Since he and the others were paid only on NAXA salary, (and a pitiful one at that) real estate was out of the question, unless they could find either a mysterious benefactor or an unsettled island in the International Archipelago...or both. Therefore, using the inside of the volcano as a headquarters was a good plan, as long as it remained dormant. That, of course, was what they were here to find out._

_"It doesn't seem to be active," Matthias noted, studying the walls of the cavernous chamber as they descended. "It never ended up exploding fully during the Nebula crisis a year or so back, and it didn't show any prior indications of activity before then, not for decades."_

_"So what's with the earthquakes recorded around here?" Link retorted. Matthias and Link had taken interestingly opposing stands on the issue, in multiple contexts. The normally thoughtless Link was advocating caution while his contemporary was eager to begin building down here. On the other hand, Link's caution could be due to a juvenile fear of the volcano, in which case he was perfectly in character._

_"Nothing more than aftershocks," Matthias cooly responded as they reached the bottom of the rope ladder. "And besides, if this thing's going off, we'll be the first to know." _

_"You all right down there?" A voice called, one Shroud had learned to recognize as that of Leon Ocari, a friend of Link's who hailed from Netopia, and previously, his homeland of Hyrule. The powerful warrior was apparently the elder brother of Link's betrothed, and was stopping in to check up on his little brother-in-law-to-be. In the process, he'd been inducted into the Chaos Union just in time to face the threat of the Dark Union, and was now a probationary member. He'd insisted in flying them to the Mountain, and since Matthias' pilot's license wasn't validated yet, they'd accepted._

_"Yep," Shroud called up to him. "Link'll hold the rope ladder for you so that you can climb down here." Leon nodded, and he and Link went to work, the former descending quickly while the latter held the rope taut. As he and Matthias hurried into the base, Shroud began to study the headquarters he'd apparently used as the leader of the Dark Union. The base had been fixed up, no longer scarred and pitted by lava, and apparently fully operational. They reached the central chamber, where Matthias and Shroud had battled in both the real world and the net, and jacked their netnavis into the central computer, to assess the status of the base's server while Matthias began studying the data on the volcano that the computer was collecting.  
_

_"Everything seems fine," Matthias said as he skimmed through the documents.. "Temp's a little higher than average, but that's to be expected. I think that we can start checking out the base now."_

_"Excellent," Shroud said, and he began to turn around and look at Link and Leon, who were now entering the room bickering, when he saw the faint steel glint of a dagger behind Matthias' throat. "Matthias, down!" he cried, throwing a shuriken from his belt even as he spoke, praying that his friend would move before it sliced through his heart._

_Matthias dropped almost instantly, his reflexes as good as ever, and the throwing star imbedded itself in his assailant's chest. Unfortunately, sparks began to fly from the wound, and as Shroud and the others watched, a robot stepped into the light, its arm moving back to toss the dagger in its hand at Shroud. A shuriken to the neck stopped it in its tracks._

_The faint sound of clapping came to their attention, and Shroud whirled around to see that a man was emerging from the shadows, wearing a dark cloak and a black mask, which covered his eyes and the surrounding areas, making him impossible to identify. "Excellent work, Shroud. You've managed to destroy one of the robotic drones I have under my command. But can you destroy more?" As he spoke, a dozen robots stepped into the light behind him, and Shroud heard the sound of Link and Leon drawing their blades from behind him._

_"Who are you?" he asked, fearing the answer._

_"My name is Shade," their new opponent said, brushing aside his cloak to reveal a katana at his waist. "And I am the human leader of the new Dark Union." With that, he struck, drawing the blade and rushing at Shroud in the same movement._

_Matthias moved to block the blow, Cyber Slashers extending rapidly from their position sheathed against his arms, but the robots moved faster, four or five of them blocking his path. The remainder swarmed Link and Leon, and then this left the apparently defenseless Shroud against this 'Shade'. But Shroud truly did have a defence, and he pulled it from his belt, the seemingly bladeless hilt of a sword of his own. It seemed useless, but as he flipped a switch, liquid metal began to drip from the hilt. With a flick of the switch and a quick upwards slash, the blade hardened, and brought itself into the path of Shade's katana, now a rapier strong enough to parry the blow._

_Shade's eyes opened in disbelief as he looked at the blade attempting to break past his own, and Shroud smiled. "Like it? It was a gift from a friend." Shade stepped backwards and resumed the attack, trying to break what he seemed to assume was a weak blade. However, the alloy of steel and magnometal seemed to prove itself mighty, and the blade refused to break no matter how many times that the two struck each other. However, Shade soon realized this, and feigned a powerful swing at Shroud's balde, instead striking at his side. Shroud managed to block a direct hit, but the sword still managed to slice across his side, and the unexpected blood loss so soon after his injury here a few weeks prior caused him to stagger, and Shade managed to score a few more slices across his arms and legs, although no grieveous wounds._

_Leon, Link, and Matthias tried to break past and help Shroud as they saw him fall, but their efforts proved futile, as more robots appeared to quickly subdue them. This left Shroud alone, and he was quickly losing the battle. "Why...why are you doing this?" he asked as Shade began to push him backwards. "Why are you working with Master Shadow?"_

_"The power, of course. And revenge, of course, but I think that reason will be dealt with quite soon." His attack continued, pushing Shroud backwards towards the wall, where he could quickly be pinned and defeated. Realizing this, Shroud decided to try something risky, and dropped his sword after a tough parry, crumpling to the ground before Shade._

_"All right, Shade...you win." His right hand reached towards the wound at his side, seemingly trying to hold the blood in. "Let us go, and we'll never confront the Dark Union again."_

_"Nice try," Shade replied, pointing his sword at Shroud's heart, "but I couldn't trust you. Not after what you've done to me. Killing you is a much better alternative. Goodbye, Shroud." His arm swung backward to lop off Shroud's head, but Shroud managed to strike first, pulling the dagger out of his belt and jabbing it upwards, slicing into Shade's side. His foe fell back, clutching at his wound, and Shroud managed to fight his way to his feet, using his sword as a crutch._

_"Don't worry, you got lucky. I don't think that I managed to fatally wound you...as long as you recieve some medical attention in the next half-hour." Shade began to back away, but Shroud assumed he was going for an exit, he didn't feel as if he could fend him off any longer._

_"It doesn't matter!" Shade shouted, a bit too loudly. "Your death was not the primary objective of this mission! Master Shadow, show them!" In something bordering on horror, Shroud's eyes were drawn to the large screen where he and Matthias had jacked in their navis. On it, he saw three things. One: Matthias' netnavi, Galaxyman, lying on the ground, presumably unconscious. Two: a netnavi that was presumably Master Shadow, cloaked in blackest darkness with his hands around the neck of a netnavi. Three: the face of his netnavi Shadow X, as Master Shadow deleted him with a slight squeeze of his hand._

_"Nice to meet you, Shroud," Master Shadow said, the data of the fallen netnavi swirling around him. "I trust that my newest ally hasn't traumatized you more than I have?"_

_"What?" Shroud was barely able to speak. Shadow X, the fabled lost warrior navi of Nation Z, a netnavi so strong that the military had killed his mother and caused his father to go into hiding in an attempt to claim it for themselves, and his constant companion for the last seven years, had been deleted, without scarcely any energy on the part of his murderer.  
_

_"Oh, I see that he hasn't removed his mask yet. Shade. Off with the mask. Now." Shade looked reluctant, but his loyalty seemed stronger than his resentment, and he whipped the mask off in one fluid motion. Shroud hadn't thought he could be more surprised. The face that stared back at him was a familiar one, one he recognized even though he hadn't seen it in years. The face was his own, and it belonged to his twin brother, Siota Ryu Taruka._

_"Hello, brother," Shade said bitterly. "Surprised to see me?"_

_Sickeningly realizing that his past was coming back to haunt him again, and that he had lost more blood than was healthy for him, Shroud began to collapse, falling into a deep blackness as his brother turned and ran haltingly, escaping easily as the Chaos Union fell yet again to the might of darkness._

-

**_Chaotic We Stand_**

-

_**Chapter 11: **Excessus_

-

-- Wednesday, April 9, 2: 34 PM, X's Office, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

Shroud knocked hesitantly on the door to X's offices, having been summoned to speak to him regarding the mission. They were supposedly leaving tonight, but no one knew where they were being sent to as of yet, and X hadn't told them anything lately except that he had read their proposal and liked it. Still, he'd told Shroud that he'd made some minor changes to it, and that was why he was here, instead of spending time with his family.

The door opened, and Shroud walked in to see X sitting behind his desk, as always. "You wanted to see me?" he asked rhetorically, awaiting X's permission to sit.

"Yes, yes, sit down." Shroud did so, and then X passed him a folder full of papers related to the mission. "There's the improved mission plan," he said absently while typing something else. "I didn't change a lot, but you'll notice that you're actually going up into space preemptively, so that we don't lose a second."

Technically, that would work. As soon as the weapon was adjusted to become one, they would know, and be able to destroy it. There was only one problem. "Sir, we don't have a space station to go to. Are you planning on us wasting fuel just jetting around space?"

"Not at all," X replied. If you'll read the information on pages eight and nine, you will see that I have made provisions for you to dock at a space station."

Shroud quickly flipped through, and found a page with a picture that looked strikingly familiar to the one he had shown to the Chaos Union several days prior, of the space station and two satellites that the Vile 5 was most likely to use. However, in this version, the space station was circled in red, and the page opposite detailed the space stations specs, and instructions for docking procedure. "How are we to dock on this station? Aren't there people there?"

"No one is currently on the station, and I have negotiated with our allies to allow you to fly up there this one time only, in order to prevent catastrophe. You will dock there and wait for one of the two satellites to begin falling, at which time you will train the station's short-range lasers to fire upon it and destroy it. Make sure that you break it into very small pieces so none will hit us on accident."

"But Lord X," he said, now more confused than anything, "what if the station is the one to drop out of orbit?"

"Well, that will make it that much easier, won't it?" he replied. "Set the self-destruct and fly out. At any rate, your shuttle will be docked at SANA, on Runway 2. That's in Tau Complex, so make sure you make it on time. The shuttle leaves at six, and you'll arrive sometime around three in the afternoon tomorrow."

Shroud sighed, but said nothing, instead flipping through the folder. "Sir, it does also say that the shuttle will only hold nine people."

"Yes, because I set aside the shuttle before Matthias' injury. There were nine of you then."

"But now there's ten of us!"

"I can't change that now, Shroud, and to be honest, I don't think I would. We only have one shuttle larger than that, with a capacity of twelve, and only that one. The capacity would be lower if we had only one of these as well, but luckily another nine-seater was built a month or two ago. So one of you is just going to have to stay home."

"Well, in that case, I would assume that we get Synchro Chips?"

"Yes, in the end, Harpuia did convince me to allow you to bring Synchro Chips. However, you must be very careful not to break them. We cannot make a great number of them and have already lost two as of late, no thanks to your friends Pavo and Chris. Anything else?"

Shroud gritted his teeth and stood abruptly, pulling some papers from his coat that he threw onto X's desk. "Just this."

X raised an eyebrow, and then looked over the pages that were now strewn about his desk. "And what is 'this'?"

"My two-weeks' notice."

X just stared at him. Good. He'd been hoping for that expression on his face. "You're quitting? Shroud, I will not allow this. You and the Chaos Union are--"

"Are what? Important to you? A good bargaining chip? Your only hope of fighting back nations like Electopia and Netopia?" Shroud was angry now, and his short temper was beginning to fray. "I'm done with this country. For over seven years I've lived under your rule, and in the last few weeks, I think that I've learned who you are for the first time. I was so grateful for your aid that I closed my eyes to the truth: that you are nothing more than a dictator. So if you want someone to defend your country for you, you'd better start asking the rest of the Chaos Union, because I'm finished with you."

He grabbed the folder X had given to him and began to walk out, despite X's cries. "You can't go back to Electopia, Shroud. They'll kill you. You're only safe as long as you're here."

"That's funny," he replied, stopping and half-turning to face X. "Just last week I came closer to death than I have in years. Why? Because you'd rather have me a martyr than a confederate. I won't be your martyr, X. That's why I'm leaving. If I need to die, I will die for the people I care for, and you aren't one of them." With that last parting shot, Shroud pushed the door open and walked into the elevator, never looking back again.

* * *

-- 5: 54 PM, Gate 2, SANA, Tau Complex, Neo Arcadia --

Matthias looked sadly at the others, foolishly wishing that his legs would permit him to join them on their mission. They were all preparing to board, standing right in front of the gate onto the shuttle, each saying goodbye in their own way. Shroud held Seitoka in his arms while talking to Saishi, who really didn't understand what was going on. Jules continued to argue with a concerned Mikoto, who wasn't happy to be left behind, as if she was useless. Link's kids were strangely still for a moment as he spoke solemnly to them, and Raymond was talking with Alistor, to discover if he knew anything more of the Vile 5. Chris and Golex were simply talking amongst themselves, having no family present, but SH came over to sit beside him.

"Sorry you're not coming with us, Matthias."

"It's all right," he replied, trying not to look too wanting.

"No, it's not," SH said, causing Matthias to look over at him in surprise. He'd forgotten how blunt SH could be. "I know what it's like to be crippled. When I got this thing attached to me," and here he lightly tapped the computer fused with his neck, "my parents forced me to stay bedridden for a month, to make sure that the assimilation went well. When I finally was able to move about again, I realized that if my nerves hadn't fused properly, I might have become completely paralyzed, from the computer down. So just because something seems bad now doesn't mean that it's all bad."

"Well, I may not recover from my own paralysis, SH," Matthias retorted, a bit irked by SH's offhandedness. "Irine's shot only works a percentage of the time, and I haven't shown much improvement yet, after a week."

But SH only smiled. "I know you, Matthias. You'll heal." He gave him a light tap on the shoulder and walked back towards the others. He didn't know it, or perhaps he did, but that simple visit had encouraged Matthias enough to try to move his legs. They twitched slightly, and a grin began to appear on his face. That was good enough for now.

-

"I cannot believe that you agreed to this without even consulting me! I am as much a member of the Chaos Union as you, Jules. Why is it that you go while I stay?"

"Miko…" Jules didn't really have an answer for her. Shroud had called him at their hotel and asked him to meet with him at his house. Once there, Shroud had told him that either he or Miko could come, but not both. Apparently, it was due to a lack of seating, but he presumed that Shroud thought much like himself, in that he didn't want to see Miko harmed. So, Jules had agreed, hoping that Miko wouldn't be too angry with him; she was.

"I just don't understand. Why me? Why not someone else?"

"Because we love you, Miko." She stopped talking, as surprised as if she had never heard it before. "Shroud is a family person, and you're family. And you're my wife. I would rather die than let you be hurt, and this isn't necessarily going to be an easy mission. That's why I decided to make you stay. Because if anyone else dies up there, their children will have a mother to care for them. But if you and I go up there, and we both die, Kitsune has no one."

Miko looked away from Jules and allowed herself a quick sniffle before looking back up at him with reluctantly teary eyes. "I'm sorry, Jules. I didn't mean to get angry about it. But…Don't die on me, or I'll kill you!" she said, that last with a furious energy. Then he kissed her, for what he prayed would not be the last time, and nothing else mattered.

-

"Dad, why can't we come? You can just tie us to the wall if you're worried about the whole G-force thing." Link looked over his two children and smiled lightly, remembering when he was their age.

"Sorry, you two, but this mission isn't for little kids. Now, I know that you think that you're all grown up now that you're seven and four…"

"13 and 10!"

"Oh, that's right, how could I forget?" Dakota and Jade giggled as usual, and Link began to laugh for a minute as well, before becoming solemn again. "But listen, you two. Dakota, I was about your age when I joined the Chaos Union, so I understand exactly how you feel. It's like you're invincible. But that's not the way that the world works. Someday, I won't be here anymore, and the same goes for your mother. You have responsibilities as our children to Hyrule, and I think that you need to start accepting those responsibilities."

"But Dad, I'm younger than Dakota!" Jade protested. "Why do we have to start at the same time?"

"Jade, you are a princess. You started your job from the minute you were born. Someday, you will lead the Council of Sages, and some young hero will come along to marry you. So, when you return home, your mother is going to begin teaching you how to really be a princess, and teach you to rule Hyrule with the wisdom and grace I know you have."

"What about me, Dad?" Dakota asked. Link knew that he knew his role, because he had already begun training his son in the art of swordplay. But it was good that Dakota had asked, because Link intended on changing the manner of his training.

"Dakota, you are my son, but because of that, you will have no status amongst the Sages, and will only be a member of the royal family, never a ruling member. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, you must be ready to defend our kingdom from injustice. But unlike your mother, I don't think that you can learn to do that in Hyrule. That is why you are not returning home. When Jade and your mother leave Neo Arcadia to return to Hyrule, you will do to Electopia and join the Officials. I have made arrangements for you to stay in their dormitories, and you will become an Official Netbattler, as I was. Then, once you have received a Synchro Chip, you will be ready to defend our country."

Dakota's expression was interesting, a mixture of both shock and interest. Something else was in that expression as well, as if Dakota had known that he would join the ONB. But all he said aloud was, "Thanks, Dad," before giving his father a hug. Jade gave him one subsequently, with a naively royal kiss upon his check as well. Link then stood and walked over towards his wife. "All right, they're all yours."

"Link…please be careful. I couldn't bear lose you." Zelda fell into his arms, and Link held her close against him.

"I know, my dear. I know."

-

Chris looked over all of the others while he leaned up against the wall. Not for the first time, he wished that Erika was with him again. Half the Union was married, and yet he'd given up that path for something else. What he'd gained in exchange for giving up Erika was good, and was worth gaining, but nothing had ever convinced him that losing her was a price good enough to pay.

"So, what are you going to do when this is all over?" Golex asked him. The enigmatic Golex had been a mysterious member back when the Chaos Union was active, but now Chris knew even less of him. He had disappeared after their disbanding, and his netnavi had been active a bit afterwards, becoming a thief of some kind who dwelt within the Undernet. But Golex himself he'd heard nothing of, and Chris liked to know as much as possible about the people he worked with.

"I'm not sure," he responded. "Maybe I'll go to Netopia or something. Someplace new. How about you?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I've been to almost every country now, but maybe I'll go island hopping in the International Archipelago, or something. Of course, I'll let Hyperion go again, since he's been bugging me a bit."

"What's up with your netnavi, anyways?" After all, Chris didn't remember Hyperman being as eager to leave Golex as this new Hyperion was.

"Personally, I'm not exactly sure. He must have gotten infected with some virus that corrupted his internal data. It gave him an upgrade and made him into Hyperion, but he left me afterwards, becoming a net criminal. I managed to capture him eventually, and made him swear that if I ever needed him, he would come, but he wouldn't be tethered to me any longer. I agreed, but only after he let me program the oath into his frame."

Chris simply shrugged. That made sense, he supposed. He considered checking to make sure that Golex was telling him the truth, but it didn't seem important enough. Finding out that Shroud hadn't died had been, but this certainly wasn't. Still, he touched his hand to the Chain of Argent around his neck, and began to think of the day he received it, and of what he had learned.

-

"When you comin' home, Daddy?" Saishi cried as Shroud passed off Seitoka to Irine. Shroud crouched down to talk eye to eye with him; he'd always appreciated that as a kid.

"Well, Saishi, I'll be back in a few days," he replied, praying that the words held truth. "But you've gotta be good for your mom until I get back, okay?" His son eagerly nodded, and Shroud let out a chuckle as he ruffled his son's hair. He stood, knees protesting at the effort, and turned to look at Seija and Irine, the latter of whom was attending to Seitoka at the moment.

"Dad…I'm sorry that I left Neo Arcadia without your permission," Seija said, looking much more sorry than he presumed she actually was.

"Don't be," he said, slightly startling her. "If anyone should be sorry, it's me. I was so worried about what might happen if you left Neo Arcadia, that I never considered what might happen if you stayed here. I promise you, things will be different from now on. We're leaving Neo Arcadia after I get back."

"What? But what about the bounty on your head? You can't leave, or people will hunt you down."

"Let them try," he replied. "We'll travel to a remote country, maybe one of the island nations, and they won't find us. Maybe the case could be reopened and I could be pardoned. But all I know is that we can't stay here anymore, and I think that it's time you got to see the world."

"Oh, Dad!" Seija nearly leapt into his arms, and gave him a large hug. As she let go of him, she moved to take Seitoka on some signal Shroud never saw, and Irine moved towards him.

"Promise me you won't die up there," she said, looking intently into his eyes. "Promise me."

"I can never promise that, Irine. I never have."

She shook her head, as if trying to ward off tears, and said, "I don't care. I won't let you die if I can help it."

"Irine, listen to me. Listen, please." He took her hands in his, and tilted her chin up to look into her eyes. "I love you, and I will always love you, even after death." Her lips moved silently, saying no, but he continued. "It needs to be said. If I die, I want you to be happy, whatever that means. My death will make you and the children safe again, so you can return to Electopia, as you've always wanted. But don't go on mourning forever. Will you promise me that?" She looked hesitant, but tearfully agreed, before kissing him for what might be the last time.

Then he let her go, giving her hand a quick squeeze before moving to the gate's entrance. He said nothing, but the others knew, and finished their goodbyes quickly to follow him. Brian and Pavo were the first behind him, and soon the others all followed single-file, Chris, Golex, SH, Raymond, Link, and finally Jules. As they took their seats in the cabin, Shroud waited at the door to the cockpit to address them.

Once they were all seated, he began to speak. "What we are about to do may change the course of history. Without our help, Neo Arcadia will be wiped off the map, and the war wanted by the Vile 5 will begin. But with our aid, we will destroy the weapon of the Vile 5 and defeat them, saving the city for another day. If there are any who feel that they do not want to work towards this end, please leave." No one moved, as expected.

"In that case, I would like to simply say that I am glad to have worked with you all again, despite the changes our lives have taken in the years since we have seen each other. Brian, now a businessman, Pavo, a politician. Two jobs I could never see you taking that you have fit perfectly into. Chris, graduating from the Setan Academy, a goal I never managed to achieve. Golex, living life to its fullest. SH, now living the dream, and working in repossessions as you always loved. Raymond, a teacher, and Link, a prince. J.G. now Jules, and married to another of ours, Mikoto. And Matthias, who has paid a great price for our safety, and the safety of this city's people. All of you are like family to me, and I pray that we return home as we left it, whole, and in one piece."

The others looked at him, listening intently to his speech. Shroud opened his mouth to find more words to say, and realized that there were only two. "Good luck," he said, before turning and entering the cockpit, turning on the shuttle and waiting for clearance to launch.

-

A man watched from outside SANA as the shuttle carrying the Chaos Union took off. That was it then. Their families and the members they left behind were already leaving, taking taxis or cars back to their domiciles, waiting for the mission to be over and their loved ones to be safe. He only hoped that could be accomplished, even without his aid.

He'd finally ditched the kid, only to discover later that his father had joined Shroud and the others, and he'd been hiding in a rundown apartment for nothing. Still, everything had worked out fine, and Shroud should be fine on the station, regardless of what satellite the Vile 5 chose to use. "That's right, just keep telling yourself that, it'll make you feel better," he muttered to himself as he slipped back into the shrubbery that surrounded the facility.

He supposed that he could go see Irine and the kids. He hadn't seen them since a little after Seija was born, despite his initial efforts to seek out Shroud. But after a while, he'd figured that the former Chaos Union leader would hide until he wanted to be found, and sure enough: he'd appeared several years later as a personal advisor to Lord X, leader of the recently formed nation of Neo Arcadia. After that, Shroud had been amongst the furthest things from his mind until he'd picked up that stray bit of information.

He'd recently been sent out to collect the bounty on a rebel Darkloid known as Aki Fuma, a criminal whose netnavi Frostman had been irrevocably corrupted, causing him to regret joining the Darkloids and try to flee. Unfortunately, the Darkloids didn't like that too much, and had hired him to hunt down the runaway and silence him. The criminal was easy to find, but once he'd been caught, some interesting information had been gleaned from his gibbering tongue.

"Please don't kill me, I'll tell you anything! Everything!" He could still hear the man's voice, plain as day, even though the event was weeks old. "The Darkloids are planning something big! An attack on Neo Arcadia!" The name had caused him to pause for an instant, and Aki took it as mercy. "They're working through some group called the Vile 5. They're starting a war between nations so that it'll be easier to infect netnavis! Please don't kill me!" He then proceeded to tell him the entire tale, as much as he knew, and he suddenly realized that he needed to find Shroud.

He hadn't killed him, of course. He rarely did kill his bounties, even if murder was requested, as it was in this case. He simply reported in the death, showcased a similar-looking corpse's head that had rotted a bit, and sold the captive to another country with an outstanding warrant on them. In this case, it had been Netopia, and he'd returned to his base in Nation Z worried over what Aki had said. Eventually, he'd decided to find out if Shroud still worked in Neo Arcadia, and went to ask the services of the Hurr Repossession Agency, who'd been friends of his way back when. The kid working there had given him a direct address to Shroud's house, but the resulting stalking made him wish he'd just flown right there without consulting an outside source.

No matter. Everyone made a mistake once in a while, and this mistake hadn't killed anyone, so it must have turned out decent. He was coming out of the bushes now, and could see the road leading outwards before him. The taxis, last to leave the base, were at the gate to the main road, the actual cars already gone. He wondered if they could see him, all the way up there, and if any recognized him. None did, and as he stood and watched them silently, they all drove off, leaving him alone.

As he began to move towards the motorcycle he'd stashed across the road, he caught a movement from his peripheral vision, and turned angrily, believing it to be the Hurr boy again. Instead, a woman appeared before his eyes, dressed in a light red skirt and a crimson blouse. It occurred to him that he had seen her once before, and tried to imagine where. Suddenly, as he remembered a young girl, and mentally aged her twenty or twenty-five years, he knew exactly who she was, and began to say her name.

The words echoed loudly to his ears, and he noticed a jabbing pain in his neck. Surprisingly slowly, he reached upwards to feel a small dart, and then realized the woman was holding a small tube close to her lips, a tube that she slipped back into her purse. "I knew that I'd find you sooner or later," she said to him in a voice he knew could not be her own. "As soon as my employers found out that their runaway had spilled the beans, they knew that you'd be here eventually. But I'm quite surprised that you waited this long. What good were you doing watching from behind the fence?"

He tried to mutter a response, but his mouth began to open and close soundlessly. A jarring pain cut into his hands and arms, and he realized that he had fallen to the ground. He couldn't move his head to see the woman he once knew, but could still hear her speaking. "Too bad that you didn't bring your netnavis with you. I had a nice ion discharge ready too. And don't worry about dying. This is only a sedative. Just don't expect to wake up in the next few days, all right?"

He faintly heard her say something else, and then, as he wondered how he had been so easily tricked, his world faded out.

* * *

-- Thursday, April 10, 3: 45 PM, Space Station Algebar --

Shroud exited the shuttle and immediately opened the door to the airlock, ushering the others in. They quickly passed through and entered the station's central lounge, where they would most likely be spending a majority of their time. He walked behind the bar and pulled out several bottles, before addressing the Union. "All right, since Brian and Chris drew the short straws on the way up, they're going to head up to the control deck and start monitoring the two satellites. In the meantime," he continued, uncorking a bottle of sake and pouring it into small cups that some of the others took. "drink up. We've got a long wait ahead of us."

"It's been a long time since I've had some of this," Link said, quaffing nearly the entire glass in one gulp, as always. "Odd that it's on a Sharoan satellite though. Isn't this usually made in Nation Z or Choina?"

"Sharo's invading Choina," SH responded soberly as Brian and Chris left. SH always knew how to kill a conversation.

"Are we sure that we're doing the right thing?" Pavo asked, sipping the sake slowly. "I mean, most of us are citizens of either Electopia or Netopia, and we're fighting for a country that is allying themselves with Sharo, the most prominent enemy of our nations. War hasn't officially begun, but technically, what we're doing is treasonous."

"It's too late to have second thoughts," Shroud replied smoothly, but he understood what Pavo was saying. Technically, his friends were the enemy, and they weren't doing their countries any good by helping him. Quite the opposite: crushing Neo Arcadia would give Sharo the incentive to attack, and Netopia and Electopia would probably succeed in an all-out war against Sharo. However, he couldn't sit back and watch a country die.

"You're right, Shroud," Jules responded. "So why don't we just blow both satellites out of the air? That'll get us home right away."

"No, because the treaty with Sharo hasn't been signed yet, right?" Raymond asked. "If we blew their satellites out of the sky they could just bomb Neo Arcadia and we'd be back where we were, except without any allies at all."

"Excellent deduction, my Chaos Union friends."

The entire team swiveled, looking towards the doorway that Brian and Chris had recently passed through. Unbelievably enough, the entire Vile 5 stood in the hall, Dr. Cain at the front with Drs. Doppler and Gate to his right and Weil and Lumina to his left.

"Now," Cain said, as Shroud's mind began to reel. "Why don't we start this show with a bang?"

Then the rest of the station reeled, as the rockets that had formerly pushed it into space ignited, throwing the Chaos Union to the ground as it began to fall towards Neo Arcadia.


	13. Celestial Battle

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the celestial property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** Hello again, everyone. As promised, this chapter contains the entire space battle, and as a result, it's my longest chapter yet! However, due to a number of factors, including the length of the chapter, a slight amount of writer's block, and sheer laziness and lack of time, there will be no flashback during this chapter. However, after this chapter, the flashbacks will begin to focus on the Chaos Union after the disbanding of the Union. Why? Because there's only so many stories to tell, and I like to keep things interesting. Enjoy!

-

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

_**Chapter 12:**_ _Dimicatio Caelestis_

-

-- 3: 48 PM, Space Station Algebar --

Shroud was the first to get to his feet, and he stood and charged in the same instant, throwing himself at the Vile 5. Unfortunately, he found himself on the floor seconds later, and as the others managed to unsteadily get to their feet, he looked around to realize that he was laying in the exact same place as the Vile 5 were standing.

"We aren't idiots, you know?" Doppler cackled maniacally, as the group stepped backwards in unison to allow themselves to be clearly seen again. "The station's designed to be your tomb, not ours."

"So we implanted these holographic projectors in here," Gate continued. "It was an easy task, all we needed do was fool the Sharoans up here into believing that their government wanted them. They did all the work for us."

"But why this station? Why not a satellite?" Link asked, Cross Fusing as he spoke. The others followed his lead, shifting into the forms of their navis, in case of another unwanted surprise.

"Link's right," Golex said. "It must have taken you some time to hack these firewalls."

"Not at all," Gate continued. "Hacking into the station's defenses was easy, especially with the help of the Dark--"

Cain silenced him with a backhand, surprisingly powerful for a man of his age, and Gate stumbled back, out of the range of the holographic camera on the other end. "Lumina, remind me to have Sigma beat him later."

"Yes, sir," she replied, obviously the most subordinate of the group. As Shroud got up and Cross Fused, he studied her a moment. Of all the members of the Vile 5, she had the least reason to turn against the city, much less him. Her talents lay not in electronics at all, rather, she was a gifted architect, having designed both the layout of Neo Arcadia as well as the designs for nearly every building there. Her only two scientific contributions were the idea for the New Land program, and her marriage to the gifted scientist Raphael Lumina, whose achievements had slowly begun to grow greater after his marriage to Isabel. Most critics passed it off as coincidence, but Shroud knew better, from having met and spoken to Raphael. His marriage to Isabel had saved him from the despair of having a worthless existence.

Isabel seemed to catch his eyes for an instant, as if to warn him, and seemed to gesture to her left. Shroud was careful not to directly look, but as Cain began to boast of how flawless his plan was, he dared allow his eyes to slide right. The Vile 5 were standing in the midst of a hallway, and to their left was an adjacent hall. Shroud couldn't recall where it led, but he could see something dancing across the wall; a pair of shadows.

"Now, you shall fall before our mighty warrior navis!" Cain was finishing as Shroud backed up a step or two. "High Max, Lumine!" he called, as if to someone behind the Chaos Union, "Attack these fools, and kill them!" The Vile 5 winked out of visibility, and the Union turned to confront the foes behind them…foes that didn't reveal themselves. But Shroud knew where they lurked, and charged with a wordless shout, causing the others to half-turn in time to see Shroud's sword interlocked with the black arm of a powerful-looking netnavi, who Shroud instantly knew was High Max.

High Max was a huge navi; the two forked points of his helmet brushed the top of the ten-foot high ceiling. He was clad in all-black armor, and it was apparently strong enough that he could block a sword stroke with it, and barely have a scratch in the aftermath. There were some portions of it that were other colors, of course, such as the red jewel in the center of his chestplate, or the yellow lines running along the sides of his legs and arms, or the glowing white orb of energy that was approaching his body…

Shroud suddenly blinked, realizing he was on the other side of the lounge, leaning up against a wall with a Juno-shaped indentation in it, while the Chaos Union attempted to charge High Max and Lumine, who had followed his fellow netnavi into the light seconds after High Max had blown Shroud back. Lumine wasn't built for power, as was High Max, but his skills were no less mighty. He wielded a laser that was designed to shatter data instantly, and had the rare ability to copy the abilities of his opponents, a trait that Shroud had only seen once before, wielded by Axl, the navi of Net Savior Sean Obihiro, who had once led the Gospel netmafia. While Lumine's version was much weaker, only able to steal weapons and not copy the navi's appearance as well, it was still formidable, and made the ivory-armored netnavi a force to be reckoned with.

The others were fighting valiantly, but between High Max's brute strength and Lumine's lasers and copy ability, they were going to lose, or at the very least, not win in time to stop the station. That had to be their primary goal, so they either needed to dispatch these two navis now, or simply break away and try to stop the station before it was too late. Sadly, Shroud didn't think either option was possible, but perhaps a fusion of the two was.

"Link, Pavo, fall back to me!" They both were startled enough to stop attacking, Link nearly dropping the sword he was trying to stab High Max with, and Pavo being struck in the wing with one of Lumine's laser shots. However, they both recovered quickly, and slipped out of the melee, their companions helping them to escape by taking slight hits for them.

"What is it, Shroud?" Link asked right away. "We don't have any time left to talk. We need to destroy them, now, or risk failing to save Neo Arcadia."

"That's why you're not fighting them. You know where the engine room is, correct?" They both nodded, so Shroud continued. "Get down there and kill the engines so that we have more time to deal with this. If you do it fast enough, we may not even drop out of orbit, although somehow I doubt that. Be careful though; remember that the Vile 5 is sure to have trapped this place somehow."

Link only nodded, content to accept Shroud's orders no questions asked, but Pavo appeared uncertain. "Are they going to be all right without us?"

"Probably not," Shroud replied, getting up gingerly and picking his sword of the floor. "But this battle doesn't matter yet. What does matter is you two getting to the engine room, and me getting to Brian and Chris in the control room. Now go!" Shroud ran down the hall that the other two Union members had previously taken, leaving the battle behind, and hoping that the absence of the three of them would not cost the Chaos Union four of its last members.

-

Raymond was having One Of Those Days. This was similar to the uncapitalized version, except it generally involved either an evil person and/or organization who wanted to rule or destroy the world, his impending demise, or the rent check was due. Today, it was all three. Dodging the rather large fist of High Max, Raymond realized that in reality, it probably was a fairly good One Of Those Days, considering that since he was here instead of his nephew, he'd probably saved his life. Then again, if he failed, Alistor was just going to be pounded into pulp by this satellite anyways.

It was a bit hard getting used to Cross Fusion, especially since the last time he'd performed it, he had been fused with the original version of his netnavi, who utilized only water attacks, making him less versatile. Now, however, he had finally managed to upgrade Alistor to his original specifications, and Cross Fusion had proved easier now than it had any other time he had done it as a teenager. Alistor 2.0 wore a purple bodysuit, with a black chestplate, helmet, pair of gloves, and pair of boots. In addition, he had two horns that protruded from his helmet and small black wings, along with a purple visor that crossed in front of his eyes. Raymond had preserved a majority of these features in Cross Fusion, but the wings were nonexistent, and the purple visor had become purple-tinted glasses.

As he sidestepped another of High Max's punches, Raymond swung his mighty sword Daemonslayer horizontally, causing a thin slash to appear across the armor of his opponent. However, he was rewarded for this momentary success with an energy globe to the face, and when he came to his senses, he noted that Jules had been thrown next to him as well, leaving both High Max and Lumine to gang up on SH and Golex.

"This is a fine predicament we're gotten ourselves into," Jules said, getting to his feet and helping Raymond do the same. It was strange to realize that this figure was really Jules, since all his prior navis had shown some vulpine qualities. This one did not, and appeared more a samurai than anything, with a longsword to prove it. "Hey, does Alistor still have aquatic powers?"

Raymond shook his head. Back in the day, he and Jules had been able to use a combo in which Jules would start a fire that Alistor would quench, eventually creating a cloud of steam that would hide them from view. Unfortunately, his and Alistor's talents were different now. "We use lightning now," he replied, leaning slightly against his sword and preparing to jump back into the fray.

"All right, then it's just got to be an all-out strike to get their attention away from the others for a minute," he replied, while what appeared to be two adult foxes swarmed up his body, merging with his fists to ignite them. "Give it all that you've got, Raymond."

"Nothing less, Jules." The sword was slung back over his back in an instant, and a few seconds later, a torrent of lightning erupted from his hands, directed at the more heavily armored High Max. Jules nodded, apparently pleased with the exchange, unleashed a stream of fire at Lumine, who immediately ceased attacking to roll away, out of the fire's path. High Max, however, could not move fast enough, and was sufficiently baked by Raymond's electrical surge.

The momentary lapse in the battle gave SH and Golex time to fall back towards him and Jules, and it seemed that they had relished the chance. The two of them had been able to hold their own against Lumine, who hadn't gotten the hold of Kyra's attack yet, but as soon as High Max had stepped in, they had been taking a beating, with several portions of SH's armor cracked and one of Golex's small wings broken. "The damn things are no use in here anyways," he muttered when Jules mentioned it. "If I could retract them, I would." Unfortunately, the few seconds they had were soon interrupted, when Lumine managed to snatch the lightning from Alistor's grasp somehow, leaving him unable to use it, but restoring to SH his own abilities, however useful they might be in this enclosed space.

"That wasn't a smart idea, my Chaos Union friends," Lumine said, his purple hair seeming to glow as electrical sparks began to travel across his ivory armor. "Because now, not only have you made my associate angry, you've given me a much more applicable power." With that, the lightning spilled forth towards them, and they were forced to scatter, ruining any chance of a unified strike.

"This really is One Of Those Days, isn't it," Raymond muttered to himself as he rolled behind one of the lounge's sofas to shield himself from his own attack.

-

"Are you sure this is the right way, Link?" Pavo asked for the third time. "I'm pretty sure that you were supposed to go left at that intersection back there."

"Like I said, Pavo, both ways led to the engine room, but this way's faster." Link would normally have been a bit on edge due to Pavo's juxtaposed opinion, but he had realized years before that the reason they worked so well together was because of how oppositely similar they were to each other, complements yet foils. The two of them were just alike enough to be perfect allies, but yet totally different. On any other day, they might have actually bickered over which direction to go, but when you're falling through space, you don't have time for such things, and Link simply began to walk down the right hallway. Pavo had soon followed, muttering what Link had learned to recognize as Spanish curses.

"All right, we're almost here," Link said, turning the last corner before the control room for the engines. "We should be able to shut down the engines from in there, but if that doesn't work, then we'll need to actually go out and do so manually. I'll volunteer to spacewalk, but you need to make sure that you've found out exactly what to do to shut them off, okay? I don't need to be charred to a crisp."

"Got it," Pavo said as they approached the door, which automatically opened for them. "Do what I'm told, fix the machine, and don't bake you like a--"

His words were cut off as Link stopped, and he realized that there were some people in the room already. One was rather small and thin, and wore gleaming gold armor that faintly shone in the dim light. His gloves and boots were a light blue, and on his chestplate, the symbol for yang in red, with a pale blue dot in the center. His helmet also bore this symbol, with was fastened to the front of it like a crest, and in his hands, he held a glowing violet saber.

The other seemed a polar opposite, at least seven or eight feet tall and quite large, with a rotund figure. His armor was mainly red, with some gray bolts driven into his shoulders and knees. Attached to his back was a golden ring, and at its apex, the symbol for yin was present, a blue swirl with a red dot in its center. He seemed to wear no helmet; rather, an axe-like protrusion was attached to the top of his metallic head, which made the figure all the more menacing.

"Hello," the smaller one said. "You must be the Chaos Union. My name is Bit, and this is my good friend Byte." Byte only grunted, and a chill began to run down Link's spine. "I suppose we're going to have to kill you now."

-

Lumine's new lightning weapon had seriously crippled their chances of succeeding. Almost all of the weapons they wielded were short-range swords, and the long-range weapons that they used were useless, except for maybe Jules' fire attack. But High Max could just block the move with his body, and Lumine would be completely protected. All in all, it wasn't looking like they'd win this battle.

Right now, SH and Raymond were trying to find cover behind the room's upholstery, and Golex was trying to shield himself and Jules behind his wings. Normally, the wings were among the strongest shields in the cyber world, being able to wrap themselves in front of Golex and then harden. However, since one had earlier been broken, some of Lumine's electricity was able to get through, although Golex was generally shocked more than Jules. "I can't take too much more of this," he said to him. "We need a decent hit soon, or you're on your own." While hiding behind Golex, he'd been trying to hit Lumine, but it wasn't working. The netnavi was too agile to be hit. Jules tried to hit him with a few more pulses of fire, but High Max just stepped in front again, taking the blows and firing off some energy orbs that appeared to be making Golex's wings crack.

"Forget it, Golex," he said, allowing his foxes Tip and Top to emerge from his gauntlets. "Fall back. SH, I need some cover!" He and Golex moved in the same instant, Jules spinning about to locate the nearest barrier, in this case an overturned table, and Golex retracing his wings, preparing to move. However, the broken wing made his movements slow, and even as SH began to expel pieces of parchment to shield them from attacks, Lumine struck, his lightning charring the paper before it could bulk up to shield Golex from his strike. Raymond moved as if to jump into the lightning's path, perhaps to try and swipe back his power, but High Max was already throwing an orb, and moments later, Golex was against the wall again.

While SH continued to distract their opponents regardless, Jules crawled over to check on his status; he was unconscious, and it appeared that the final blow had caused his chestplate to shatter, which had caused some hopefully superficial bleeding to occur. Within a few seconds, he lost Cross Fusion, his gleaming armor dissipating. "And then there were three," Jules muttered to himself, grabbing the comatose body and quickly hurrying back to his hiding spot before High Max was smart enough to realize that the sheets of paper SH was whipping about were only cover for Jules to get Golex.

"Great," Raymond muttered, seeing that Golex was unconscious. "Now what do we do, hide behind these chairs and hope that one of the others shuts down the station before we crash into Neo Arcadia?"

"No," Jules said, an idea coming to him as his foxes began to study Golex's body. "You're a netbattle teacher at your nephew's school, right?"

"Yeah, netbattles and sciences. I might try to pick up a session of math next semester; it's a really well-designed program and almost everyone teaching it is female."

"Whatever. Does your curriculum have any information on Copyroids?" Time was of the essence now.

"Yeah, but it's in the back, so I've only read it once so far."

"Close enough," Jules said, studying their opponents. "I need you to get behind High Max and find something in his copyroid body that you can overload with electricity. An outlet, a jack-in port, whatever."

"In case you've forgotten, Jules, I am currently without my electrical powers. Said powers are still arcing above our heads."

"I know, I know, but just trust me. Now, how close would you have to be to hit one of those areas effectively?"

Raymond thought about it a moment. "Probably within a few feet." There were several yards between them and their foes, which made his plan much harder to execute. "If I could get behind the bar, that would probably be close enough."

"Then get behind the bar," Jules said, "and I'll take care of the rest." As Raymond nodded and began to move, Jules looked over at his foxes, who were attempting to lick at the wounds in Golex's chest, to heal them. "Get over here, you two, he'll be fine. Now listen to me, and do as I say."

Within a few minutes, he had explained everything to them, and they scampered off, darting and weaving amongst the bolts of lightning. Raymond had managed to make it to the bar, although High Max had thrown an orb that had exploded against his left arm, which had blown him back a few steps and torn away the bodysuit around it, leaving what looked to be the beginnings of a second- or third-degree burn. But Raymond managed to make it behind the bar, and that was the last either he or SH had seen of him.

"I certainly hope that you and Raymond have something planned," SH said as Jules moved closer to him. "Because I'm starting to run low on strength here, and Raymond would have nearly lost his arm for nothing."

"I have something planned, but it's risky. It'll only get rid of High Max, and might give Lumine more power than--" he stopped talking; Tip and Top were contacting him. "Yes, now!" he shouted, startling Lumine and High Max. As Lumine spun, the foxes jumped from their hiding spot, lunging at him. He swung his hand to bat them away, and succeeded. Exactly as Jules had planned.

As the foxes flew through the air, their shapes began to change, much to the surprise of Lumine and the others, and Jules himself to a lesser degree. No longer the fiery foxes under his command, they were now creatures of light, digital faeries, glowing silver in the dim light of the lounge. Lumine stared in shock at the two beings that he now controlled, but realized too late what gaining their powers meant to him. "No!" He spun to face Raymond, but he was too late, Raymond already jumping over the bar and sending a jolt of lightning at a port located on High Max's arm. Normally, it would be used to send the netnavi from the copyroid into the net. Now, it was being used to send him from the copyroid to nonexistence.

The attack seemed successful. High Max cried out in pain as the electrical jolt began to fry his systems. However, as he sank to the ground, his copyroid began to revert to its false state, and no one harbored any illusions that it was because of his deletions. The Vile 5 had planted a wireless transceiver somewhere on either the station or a nearby satellite, and that meant that the netnavis they face today would probably return to strike again. But that was a problem for another day. For now, High Max was gone, and his departure gave the team hope that they might live to see the end of this battle.

But that hope had a price, a price that revealed itself in the next few seconds. Even as the Copyroid beside him sank to his knees, Lumine retaliated with a enraged shout, binding his newfound allies to his will in a way Jules knew all too well, and pointing a single finger at SH, which erupted with the piercing light of an enhanced laser. Jules would later learn that Lumine had the rather potent ability of always hitting what he aimed for, if he was focusing on it. However, currently devoid of this knowledge, he could only watch in shock as the finger-sized laser struck SH's arm, piercing it completely, and then in horror as the sheer pain caused his friend to lose Cross Fusion, and collapse to the ground.

"You and your friends developed a wonderful plan," Lumine said to Jules as he moved to watch both him and Raymond at the same time. Jules could say nothing in response, having only eyes for the horrible-looking hole in SH's arm, and wondering if his samurai garb would provide that much protection. "But I think you forgot one critical portion…" The glow of Tip and Top left his hands, and two small rods appeared in them. "What happens when you've accomplished it."

Jules suddenly recognized the rods for what they were: sword hilts, and the blades of light ignited as Lumine threw himself at an unconscious Golex.

-

Shroud hurried through the hallway, hoping that the Vile 5 hadn't sent anyone to guard the control room. If they had, he might have just condemned Brian and Chris to their deaths. The sounds of the battle in the lounge echoed behind him, and he cursed himself for having to leave the four of them alone against the likes of both High Max and Lumine. But it was necessary; a matter of triage. The four of them fighting in the lounge knew what they were up against. Brian and Chris didn't. That made them more important to reach.

"That's right, keep rationalizing that to yourself," he muttered aloud. The fact of the matter was, either SH, Jules, Raymond, or Golex was likely to die while he hurried to the control room, and yet if he made it there in time to stop the station's fall, it would have to be acceptable losses. That's all there was to it. So the sooner he made it to the control room, the sooner that this nightmare could end.

As he rounded the corner, the open doorway to the control room loomed ahead of him. Through it, he saw both Brian and Chris, but oddly enough, they both appeared to be on the ground, Chris lying on his back, and Brian crouched beside him. "No," Shroud breathed, beginning to run even faster as he realized that Chris' chest didn't appear to be moving. "He can't be dead." The door was growing nearer, and Shroud watched Brian look up from Chris' body to stare at Shroud…and something beyond him.

The doors suddenly slammed shut, sealing Shroud away from his friends. "No!" he cried aloud, slamming his gauntleted fists against the titanium doors, which then became the only thing keeping him from collapsing. A chuckle from behind caused him to turn, and his anger began to double as he saw that Omega was behind him, his left arm interfaced with a control panel for the door.

"Hello again, Taruka. So good of you to come…alone." Omega smiled maliciously, and Shroud felt his hatred for the netnavi grow.

"I was hoping that Chris and Pavo had destroyed you in the Twilight Desert," he responded, his voice cold, despite the fires of hatred boiling up inside of him. "I guess we weren't quite so lucky."

"No," Omega replied, lifting his energy sword from its place on his back and igniting it. "You weren't." He then dashed forward, startling Shroud with his speed. He barely managed to draw his own blade in time, making its unsheathing and the parrying of Omega's swing one move, and managing to keep his opponent's blade from slicing into his flesh.

"Nice try, Omega. I certainly hope the close quarters of this corridor isn't going to handicap your dueling skills or anything."

"Not at all," Omega coolly replied, before moving into the pattern of attack and defense that Shroud ironically enjoyed so much. The adrenaline rush from a sword fight was unlike any he had ever discovered, and so a portion of his soul always delighted in the confrontation, despite its lethality. Unlike many duels that Shroud had been a part of in his life, in which he was usually on the defense most often, and the pattern of blows grew increasingly aggressive, Omega seemed as if he could care less for whether he won or lost, and was making all his strikes one-handed, with only enough strength to keep him from gaining any sort of advantage.

So that meant that Shroud needed to strike all the harder, to end this battle before time ran out for all of them. Omega could easily escape via a wireless connection, but they would die, and take Neo Arcadia with them. That couldn't happen, not if he could help it. He pressed his attack, striking almost randomly at Omega, and rarely pressing their blades against each other for any longer than it took to halt each other's progress.

"You are a worthy adversary, Taruka," Omega said, after being forced back several steps. "Except when I am using both hands." Omega then parried one of his blows effortlessly, and then brought his other hand to the hilt of his blade, adding enough strength to his blows that Shroud could not push him back. Slowly, Omega's bloodlust seemed to be overtaking him, as his stroke grew ever more aggressive, forcing Shroud to begin to walk slowly backwards, or fear being knocked to the ground, and presumably skewered afterwards.

"You cannot defeat me!" he cried triumphantly as he began to push Shroud backwards. "Eventually, I shall push you against the doorway to the control room, and I will tear through your heart with my sword!" The thought of being stabbed by the energy blade was almost as frightening as being backed into the wall. The sword had a crossed edge, so it would surely do much more damage coming out than going in. He suspected that Omega would make sure he felt both.

Shroud hoped that the others were doing better than this.

-

Link hoped that the others were doing better than this.

As soon Bit and Byte had introduced themselves, they'd attacked, Byte throwing a mine of some sort between them, which subsequently caused him and Pavo to be pushed apart and thrown into opposing walls. Link had just enough time to deduce that they planned on keeping them from helping each other when Bit attacked, and Link was forced to swing his sword up to stop the energy blade from cleaving him into two pieces.

"Are we a 'bit' more than you anticipated, Link?" Puns aside, Link was in a mood to carve him up, and that just made his fury greater.

"Cut out the puns, Bit, and let's just get to the part where I delete you." Link then pushed his sword forward, causing Bit to take a step back. He recovered quickly, however, and thrust his sword at Link, a move that almost succeeded. Link was not accustomed to fighting amongst those who did not practice the same fighting style as he, a style that professed only blows that could be parried. A foolish notion, to be sure, assuming the remainder of the world followed the same practice, but it was a comforting one.

However, it seemed that unorthodox techniques were not all that Bit had up his sleeve. As Link sidestepped his sword thrust, his left hand extended, and a burst of fire erupted from it, striking Link squarely in the chest and knocking him back into a row of consoles, causing them to start sparking. As he watched Byte pushing Pavo towards the consoles on the opposite side of the room, he suddenly realized that Bit and Byte's goal hadn't been to ambush them…it had been to break everything in the room so that they couldn't use it later.

Well, if they felt like playing with a different set of rules, then so be it. Their duel didn't have to be with swords. "If you're playing with fire, Bit," he said as a staff began to appear in his left hand, "prepare to get…freezer burned!" The staff completely materialized, and as Link pointed it at Bit, a wave of frost was expelled from it, pushing him backwards.

"And you dared comment on my puns?" Bit said while he unsteadily got to his feet. "What a joke. Just like the rest of the Chaos Union."

"No one's laughing, Bit. Not anymore." His sword vanished, and as Bit sent another fireball at him, Link simply extended his right arm, now holding a strange weapon with a hooked chain, and fired it. The chain rocketed across the room, latching into Byte's armor, and Link went along with it, flying away from Bit. As he neared Byte, he swapped out his Ice Rod for another weapon, this one bearing a fuse. "Here's a riddle, Bit. If you stick an explosive inside the armor of a copyroid, what blows up?"

As Pavo heard him, he blanched, and allowed the mine Byte had just thrown to push him even farther away from him, and ended up hitting the opposite wall and falling on top of another console, causing it to begin to beep. "Link, don't!" he shouted as he flew. "You'll blow a hole in the ship!"

"Byte, jack out, now!" Bit cried. The netnavi followed Bit's instructions, leaving only his default form for Link to blow up. However, when he reached the copyroid, the bomb vanished, and while both Pavo and Bit stared at him in surprise, Link disabled the copyroid, making it impossible for Byte to return.

"I was kind of hoping that you'd jack out too, Bit," he said smugly, drawing his sword again. "That's all right though. I'm sure that you won't last long between Pavo and I." Pavo laughed, and leapt off the consoles, forming a sword in his hand that appeared to be made of green fire, and moving towards Link.

"You fools…do you honestly think that I require Byte to defeat you?" Bit's sword ignited, and he rushed at them, swinging it sideways to attempt harming them both. However, Pavo easily stopped him, swinging his sword one-handed and knocking the blade backwards. Apparently, this surprised even him, but Link had no such illusions of Bit's strength.

"I thought it might have been a good idea to check up on the Vile 5 before we left," he said simply. "Turns out there's some interesting documentation on you and Byte. 'Symbiotic navis', I believe the term was. You see, most people don't wield multiple netnavis because not only do you need multiple PETs, you generally need to operate all of them separately, yet at the same time. But symbiotic navis, like you and Byte, share your power, and that allows you to be operated as if you were one navi, BitByte.exe, so to speak. But the bond comes at a price: when you two aren't with each other, your power is reduced by half, and that makes you weaker than almost any netnavi, doesn't it?"

Bit grimly nodded, and Pavo actually laughed out loud but the small navi turned his head to face him, fixing him with an evil glare. "Mark my words, you two. I will be back, and I will have your heads on a platter."

"Which reminds me," Link said, sheathing his sword at his back. "It's almost dinnertime. Better run home before you become the meal."

Bit's hands clenched at his sides, his grip on his energy sword looking perilous, but he jacked out, leaving a default copyroid behind. As soon as he was gone, Link looked over at the consoles and picked one that wasn't sparking, hurrying over to it and booting it up. "Pavo, get over here. I need your help with this thing."

"All right, all right, let me do it." Pavo stepped in front of him and took over, his fingers a blur as they ran across the keyboard. Within a minute or two, he looked up and sighed. "It's a Pyrrhic victory, Link. The engines are shut off, but from where we're at in the atmosphere, I don't think that it's going to make a difference. I still think that we're going to crash into the city."

"Well then, let's regroup with the others. It's the only thing we can do." Pavo nodded, and the two of them hurried back to the lounge, both hoping that the others were still okay.

-

Jules was the first to move, tackling Lumine so he fell off course, but Raymond followed shortly after. He knew that Lumine could hurt them from long range, but since he seemed to prefer trying out these piercingly white sabers of his, he and Jules would need to get up close and personal. It was already personal.

Daemonslayer came into his hands as he struck at Lumine, who was pulling himself into a crouched position, and then he formed another sword beside him, known as Nameless. It only came at his call, and would not be held by him; a bit of coding that had developed irrationally. However, this made it actually more useful, as Daemonslayer took two hands to hold, and Nameless would simply float about, slicing things apart. Nameless swung at Lumine right away, but he rolled away, forcing the sword to embed itself in the ground, unless until it worked itself out.

But the distraction had given time for Jules to pick himself up, and with his longsword now in hand, the two of them attacked Lumine from opposite ends. Lumine was an excellent swordsman, probably having practiced with battlechips, but nothing compared to wielding swords of ones own. They could wear him down, but it would take time, and time was something they didn't have. However, Lumine quickly worked his way out of the situation, simply rolling backwards while both he and Jules were attacking, causing their swords to interlock.

Lumine was standing again by the time they moved to look back at him, and his swords were crossed over each other. "You are an excellent pair of opponents. It is only a shame that you two do not work flawlessly together. If you were to train so that you could almost read what the other was thinking. But since you cannot, you will ultimately lose, because you won't defeat me in time to save your precious ship."

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Link and Pavo suddenly appeared from a corridor, their swords drawn and pointed at Lumine. Raymond smiled. He liked these odds. The four of them would quickly defeat Lumine, and they all knew it.

"Well then," Lumine said, looking around at all of them. "I suppose that there's only one thing I have left to do…"

-

Shroud had his back to the wall. That meant he probably only had a minute or two to live.

Omega's smile had grown larger and larger as the duel had progressed, and Shroud had soon learned to fear its arrival, despite the fact that this might be the only time he ever saw it. Omega's sword strokes had grown ever stronger, while his had grown ever weaker, and now, Omega had his sword pinned back with his own, pushing his own blade towards his throat. "You weren't much of a problem, Taruka. Too bad. However, this will allow me to return home sooner, since the remainder of your precious team won't know what to do after they find your body, and within a few minutes, it'll be too late for them to leave."

"You…you can't win, Omega," Shroud said, straining to preserve his life just a few seconds longer. "The Vile 5...will…be stopped."

Omega laughed, the sound chilling Shroud's bones. "You fool! Do you really think that the Vile 5 are the culprits behind this mess?" Shroud looked at him, half-confused, half-understanding. "The Vile 5 didn't decide to rebel all on their own. I work for those who told them to. Some old friends of the Chaos Union. Perhaps you'll remember them…the Dark Union."

"No," Shroud breathed, realizing the magnitude of this discovery. Somehow, he found new strength, his wings and arms tensing, and he pushed upwards at Omega's blade while he spread his wings, the extra push giving him just enough force to knock Omega back a few steps, and allow him to regain his footing. "I won't let you win, Omega. I swore an oath once, to fight the Dark Union until my last breath, and that oath has never been forsworn. So either you kill me, or I delete you, but I will not leave this world with nothing more than a whimper as you cut my throat."

"So, you will try again then, only to fail? Fine. Let us see how long you can last this--"

The sudden appearance of four swords jutting out from his chest made him pause, and Omega collapsed to his knees as they were removed, revealing Link, Pavo, Jules, and Raymond behind him. "We heard something about the Dark Union," Link said. "We don't like them too much, so I thought I'd just stab you in the back before you could say anything else you regret. Apparently my friends here felt the same way."

"No," Omega gasped, and suddenly Shroud realized that the Omega he had been fighting was not in a copyroid, but was actually existing, as his body began to de-rezz in the places where he had been wounded. The Dimensional Chip would have allowed him to use his full power, if it was greater than what the copyroid could handle, but he could be wounded as well, as they could see. "I will not die here. Not while I can still leave. But first…Lord Nocturne sends his regards…"

Omega then lunged at Shroud, somehow fading as he passed through his body. Somewhere deep in his mind, Shroud told himself that this was what it looked like when navis using Dimensional Chips jacked in or out, but at that moment, all he was aware of was an overwhelming sense of loss, as if a part of his soul had been torn out. He sank to his knees as the apparition passed, and felt over his heart with a hand…a hand that was no longer wearing the gauntlet that once belonged to his netnavi, Juno.

The others began to crowd around him, trying to see what was wrong, but Shroud already knew, even before he looked at the empty PET on the floor. Omega had found a way to tear Juno away from him, and presumably deleted him in the process. Omega's last words continued to echo through his mind. "Lord Nocturne sends his regards…"

"What was that, Shroud?" Pavo asked, reawakening him to reality.

"Nothing. Don't worry about me now," he said, ignoring the hands offered by his friends and getting to his feet himself. "Someone just get that door behind me open!"

As if on cue, the door slid open, and a very much alive Chris stood behind it. "Thank goodness Brian and I managed to get this door open. Are you all okay? I certainly hope that you managed to destroy Omega."

Shroud just looked at him in shock.

A few minutes later, the group had managed to sort everything out, and their focus was now entirely on stopping the shuttle. Apparently, Link and Pavo had run into some enemies of their own in the engine room, and once they'd managed to drive them off, they'd returned to the lobby, where Jules, Raymond, and Lumine had been the last ones standing. They had initially thought that he would try to fight all four of them, but he ended up just jacking out, surprising them all. Then, they'd followed Link and Pavo's lead after him, arriving just in time to stab Omega in the back.

As for Chris and Brian, apparently the console had been booby-trapped to send an electrical surge through the body of anyone who touched it. So Chris hadn't been dead as he'd thought, although both he and Brian denied that he had stopped breathing. After waking Chris back up, he and Brian had jacked in their netnavis wirelessly, and disabled the trap, allowing Brian to access the mainframe and Chris to attempt to reopen the door. It did seem odd that Chris wasn't harmed much by the shock; Shroud would have thought the Vile 5 would have made such a trap lethal.

However, he had much more sobering things to think of. Two of their members had fallen in the battle against High Max and Lumine. Golex was surely the least grievous of the two, having only superficial wounds if Jules was to be believed. SH had a more serious problem, with a hole in his left arm. Given Lumine's skill, it seemed likely that the wound was easily repairable, and only a method to take him out of the battle. Then again, there was no telling what Lumine was capable of, now that he was a loose cannon. In addition to the two of them, Raymond had some serious burns on his left arm that Link was attempting to cool down with some water, and all of them had been wounded at least a bit. Still, their injuries were treatable, and the destruction of Neo Arcadia might not be, if Brian couldn't override the computer.

Shroud walked over to look over his shoulder. "What's the verdict?" he asked, half-knowing the answer already from the look on Brian's face.

"Not good. The Vile 5 have this thing set to drop, regardless of whatever we do to it. I don't even think we could move it enough for it to splash into the water. So we're going to have to blow it up. The only problem is that the self-destruct automatically has a twenty minute delay, because that's about how much time it would take a crew of about six to pack up everything vital, hop into the shuttle, and fly off. We need to be off this thing in about ten minutes to keep from being fried by the atmosphere."

"All right then, let's go. Set the time and we'll head out."

"Not nearly that simple," Brian said, and Shroud realized that none of that had been the bad news. "The self-destruct is designed so that it will implode into itself, necessary for a safe destruct sequence in space. However, with it falling towards the Earth, it's more likely to cause a large explosion than anything, due to the flames outside potentially igniting the fuel. If that happens, you've got shrapnel. So someone needs to manually override the delay, so the station explodes right away, before it hits the atmosphere."

The meaning of his words was clear to Shroud. "So someone has to stay behind."

Brian nodded. "Exactly."

"Well then…I will," Shroud said, causing the others to look at him in surprise. "You all need to go out and live your lives. Most of your families aren't even in Neo Arcadia to be destroyed. But mine are, and I would gladly give my life for them."

"But you won't," Brian said, and Shroud suddenly felt himself slipping into darkness.

-- 4: 29 PM, Space Shuttle Aria, outside Space Station Algebar --

As Shroud slowly awoke, as he thought he'd never do again, he realized that the titanium walls around him were that of the shuttle, and not the space station. In a panic, he sat up straight, and instantly regretted it, dizziness overwhelming him.

"Take it easy, Shroud," Jules said, handing him a cool compress. "Hold this against the back of your head to keep down the swelling. I'm hoping Brian didn't give you a concussion."

"What?" he asked, taking the compress anyway and holding it behind him. He'd only noticed the pain as Jules had mentioned it, and he began to hope for the same. "Why did Brian hit me anyways? And why aren't we on the station anymore?"

"Shroud, relax. Brian volunteered himself to destroy the station." Shroud gave him a blank look, so he continued. "He has less to lose than you, and he knew that you wouldn't listen to him. So he hit you hard enough to knock you unconscious, and then the rest of us grabbed you, SH, and Golex, and got back onto the ship."

Shroud shook his head slowly, ignoring the pain it caused. "No. He has…no right…" He trailed off, suddenly understanding what Brian had done. Brian had sacrificed himself so that he would not have to, he'd sacrificed himself because he had been willing to give everything up. Even as he'd said those words, back at the station, Shroud had known that he didn't truly want to say them; he really wanted to return home. Brian had given that to him. "Has he…has he done it yet?"

Jules shook his head. "He should be, in a few minutes."

"Then help me up," he replied, setting down the compress and extending a hand. Jules looked uncertain, but took it anyways, helping Shroud out of the bed he was sitting in. Looking around, he could see that Golex was awake, although he also was restrained to a bed, and Raymond was studying SH's wound, a healing bandage wrapped around his burns. The dizziness struck him again as he moved his head, but he closed his eyes a moment, and it passed, allowing him to walk unassisted up to the observation deck.

The remainder of the Union was there, all three of them, now that Brian was to be taken out of the tally. They were seated on the stiff couches that Neo Arcadia had supplied, so that their astronauts could view the celestial world around them while they weren't working. But Shroud was less concerned about space, and more about his friend, who was now facing death for him. The shuttle had apparently managed to get out of the blast radius, and was turning around for home. This gave them the perfect view to watch Brian die.

There was no sound, just a sudden flash of light as the sequence began, and the suction of the entire station into itself. When it was over a few seconds later, there was nothing left but several small clumps of metal, which would later be destroyed by another mission. Something seemed to die within the room as Brian did, and Shroud held his head in his hands. He so desperately wanted to sob, to lament the loss of one of the greatest members of the Chaos Union.

No tears would come.

(**A/N: **You didn't really think I was going to kill off Shroud, did you?)


	14. Fatal Deception

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the heroic property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** I certainly hope that last week's installment didn't surprise anyone too badly. If so, I feel that I should warn you now that more plot twists are coming, some sooner than you think. In addition, over the course of this chapter and the next, time will pass much more quickly, to allow for a reasonable delay between crisises. Enjoy!

-

_Matthias sighed as he unlocked the door to his apartment. Shroud's appeal was going quite badly, and it looked as though he and the others would not be able to overturn his prior conviction for the murder of Dr. Hikari. Unlike his previous trial, they were attempting to work alone, rather than through a lawyer. They hadn't been allowed to mention certain aspects of the Chaos Union to someone who didn't work for the government, but speaking of it directly to the judges and the Attorney General was permitted. It wasn't helping, but it was permitted. At any rate, it would soon be over, either way, and then the only remnant of the Chaos Union would be his wife, Alysse.  
_

_He and Alysse had gotten married shortly after the Chaos Union had disbanded, and it was one of the last times a majority of the group had been together. The only members who hadn't been in attendance were Pavo, who was in Mexico and unreachable, Shade and Chris, who were studying at some place in Nation Z, and Shroud, who was on the run from the law, of course. When the time had come to choose their bridesmaids and groomsmen for the ceremony, Matthias had unorthodoxly refused to pick a best man, choosing only Link, Brian, and SH for groomsmen. His reasoning was that as he had been the best man at Shroud's wedding, he planned on returning the favor. With Shroud a fugitive, however, there was no one to take his place, so Matthias had simply chosen not to have anyone in that place for the service. Alysse had been a bit annoyed, but the wedding had gone smoothly nonetheless. Matthias did not learn until much later in his life that his best man truly had been in attendance._

_As he opened the door, he began to hear the cries of his newborn son Luke, the byproduct of a happy honeymoon. He threw his coat onto the couch and slipped into the makeshift nursery that they had made for him; originally a storage room. They were moving to Electown soon, however, so they had just decided to simply pack up everything in the room and store it in the garage, so that there was a separate place for Luke to sleep. Their bedroom was across the hall, so they could hear his cries in the night, but having the other room was nice because it meant that they weren't always stepping on discarded rattles in the middle of the night._

_He looked over the edge of the crib at his son of almost 3 months. It was still hard to believe that something so small would eventually become a person; his son. Luke was sleeping as Matthias watched him, breathing peacefully. As he watched him, Alysse came to the doorway and saw him. "I thought I heard someone at the door," she said softly._

_Matthias moved to greet her, and kissed her lightly on the lips. "How was he today?" he asked._

_"Better," she said, moving to check on the pot simmering on the stove. Matthias' nose detected the scent of basil as she sprinkled something into the pot, and he moved automatically to begin setting the table for the two of them. "He seemed very sleepy, but since he was fussy last night, I'd expect that. How was your day? Any new developments with the case?"_

_"No," Matthias said, pouring himself a glass of water. "But I'm not really expecting much. Dr. Hikari was one of the world's brightest scientists, and the world needs a scapegoat. It seems that Shroud's their best option, and they're sticking with it. At any rate, we'll be moving to Electown in a couple of weeks, so we'll be able to put it all behind us."_

_"I feel sorry for his family though. His wife...what was her name again?"_

_"Irine." He turned away from Alysse so that he could not see the raw emotion in his eyes. "And their daughter. Seija."_

_"That's right," she said, shutting off the stove as she finished the stew she was making. "You know, if it wasn't for this murder allegation, maybe our children would be playmates. Wouldn't that be cute? The girl must be nearly a year old now."_

_"Yes," Matthias said, still looking away from his wife. "But now they'll never meet. Shroud's lost to us now, him and his family. I don't suppose that I'll ever see any of them again."_

_Fate always had a way of doing the opposite of what you thought it would.  
_

-

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

**_Chapter 13:_**_ Frustramen Fatifer_

-_  
_

-- Friday, April 11, 8: 44 AM, Tau Complex, Neo Arcadia --

It was a bittersweet homecoming.

Matthias waited anxiously beside the others, hoping that everyone had made it out safely. He cursed his crippled legs; but for them, he would have been a member of that team as well. Instead, he was in this chair, beside the others left behind, praying for the safety of the Chaos Union.

They had all known that there had been trouble from the start when a news bulletin had come over the television at four o'clock, a little after the Chaos Union would have docked. There was an unidentified object approaching Neo Arcadia, and citizens had been advised to remain in their homes. This, of course, meant that everyone in the city began to panic. Luckily, most of the women left behind had been at Irine's house, so very few of their number actually had to confront the riots. Alistor had, however, sporting a black eye today, and Mikoto had actually started attacking the people rioting outside her hotel, only her expert skills allowing her to escape arrest.

Now, however, order had been restored. The bright flash that signified the destruction of their doom started to restore order, and for those who still tried to cause havoc, X sent out his Pantheon, a police force that was comprised of humans with robotic augmentations. The Pantheon was possibly the most powerful police force in the world, save the ONB, but they were only useful in Neo Arcadia, since most other nations had made human augmentation illegal. So the ONB still had their monopoly, or at least, that was how most of the world saw it. Most people who actually paid attention to the specifications of augments, as they were called outside of military duty, could see that they could easily pass for human, and many presumably did.

Today, the world was at peace. But sometimes war is very good at pretending to be peaceful. One of the first acts in the war that would soon consume the world was coming to its close, and Matthias Terre was watching it unfold.

The first person out of the ship was Shroud, walking a bit unsteadily for some reason. However, that didn't stop him from hurrying over to Irine and greeting her with a kiss, his joy apparent, but his sorrow as well. He then scooped a giggling Saishi into his arms, and gave Seija a hug with one arm before sitting in the chair next to Matthias, letting his eldest son out of his arms to go back to what he had been doing before their arrival: annoying Seija.

"Are you all…okay?" Matthias asked hesitantly. "We all saw the doctor going in first and we didn't know what to think."

"No, the doctor's just treating some of our wounds. Raymond first, probably; he's got a bad burn but it should just need a new healing bandage. SH took a bit more grievous of a wound."

"How grievous?" Matthias began to ask, but the sight of the doctor wheeling SH himself off the shuttle partially answered his question. SH was unconscious, and there was a bloodless bandage around his right arm, and his clothing was equally bloodless. Matthias had worked with technology enough to know what caused a bloodless wound. "Laser?"

Shroud nodded. "The doctor doesn't think that it'll cause any permanent damage, but he'll be dictating his emails for a while." Link and Jules had gotten off shortly after SH, and their wives had rushed into their arms. Zelda gently wept for joy, the salty stains of her tears dripping upon Link's shirt, while Mikoto only squeezed Jules tightly, as if she was trying to pop his head off. Jules seemed to be taking it stoically, but after a few moments, he muttered something to her, and she seemed to notice her death-grip, laughing slightly and bringing tears into her eyes instead, tears that she refused to allow to fall as she kissed him, and allowed him to wrap his arm protectively around her.

Matthias remembered a time when his own wife had been squeezing him tightly, remembered a time when her tears had adorned his clothing, a time when his children had been the ones scooped into his arms upon his return to his home. Another memory flashed before his eyes, taunting him with its bitterness; a time when he had loved a forbidden woman from afar. He rested his hands on the arms of his wheelchair and interlocked his fingers, making a place for his head to rest wearily, trying to forget what he had vowed to remember forever. Damn these memories, damn them all. He had loved two women once, and they were both lost to him, one to the greedy clutches of death, and one to a friend. He'd never been able to tell which betrayal was worse.

Pavo approached while his mind was lost in its reverie, addressing Shroud. Matthias had never heard him until he spoke up. His injury was making him sloppy. Even for someone who wasn't a covert ops agent anymore, that wasn't good. After all, they weren't out of the woods just yet. Irine said that it might be over a month before his treatment was complete, and he couldn't leave Neo Arcadia until Shroud and the others did, a two-week delay. Unless X just fired him early.

"Shroud," he heard Pavo say, only half-listening. "I'm going home. I know that you and some of the others are still going to talk with X, but I'm tired. I haven't seen my son in two weeks. And after what Brian did…I'm done with this, Shroud. You and the others will always be friends, but don't contact me again. Not for something like this."

"Brian?" Matthias said suddenly, the conversation catching up with his memory stricken mind. "What happened to Brian?"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, and Matthias realized that he had almost been shouting. Looking around the room, he saw that every member of the Chaos Union had grown solemn, Link and Jules stepping away from their wives, and Raymond pulling himself away from the doctor attempting to tend to his wounds. As Chris and Golex came out of the ship, the latter with bandages wrapped around his chest, Matthias realized that the count of Chaos Union members in this room was only ten. "Shroud," he said, looking at him intently. "What happened to Brian?"

Shroud sighed, getting to his feet and walking away from Matthias and the others, staring out the large glass window into the dawning sun. "Matthias…the only reason that I'm still talking to you is because Brian gave his life on that station. He gave up his life so that I wouldn't have to. If Brian hadn't been there…you'd be talking to Link about how the mission went right now."

He had that look on his face, the one where you could see that he needed to be somewhere else, somewhere where he could let his emotions run free, somewhere that he didn't need to be Chaos Alpha. He needed a chance to be Shroud Taruka, just a man like anybody else. Unfortunately, Shroud Taruka was about to be hit with another blow. "Shroud, I know that you need time to mourn Brian. We all do. But there's something else you need to know." Shroud turned back to look at him silently, awaiting this last bit of news. How he wished they didn't have to tell him.

"Your brother's in the hospital," Matthias finally said. Shroud's face shifted instantly, his mask shattered. Disbelief was visible on the revealed visage, but it was soon replaced by anger.

"What happened to him? Why was he here, anyways?"

"We don't know," Irine said, walking closer to him. "He was still unconscious when we left the hospital last night. But the doctors think…the doctors think that he's been poisoned."

"Take me to him," Shroud said, directing the request to both no one and everyone, the Chaos Union forgotten. Irine nodded and took his arm, muttering more details to him as they began to walk away. Link gathered the group of space travelers together and spoke to them a moment, before allowing them to break off and leave. Seija managed to get Saishi to listen to her, and came to stand beside Matthias.

"We'd better get going, Mr. Terre. My parents are our ride home."

"Of course," he said, turning his accursed chair away from the others and wheeling away with the slightest motion of his wrist upon its joystick. Sometimes, death was just another way to look at life, simply the last great act one performed before departing this mortal plane. But something told Matthias that Brian's widow and son might not see it that way. He certainly didn't.

-

-- 9: 01 AM, Hikari Hospital, Rho Complex, Neo Arcadia --

-

"We normally don't take cases as simple as this," the doctor was saying as they walked (or in Matthias' case, rolled) through the halls of the third floor. "But when you find someone halfway between death and a coma holding your automatic doors open, you don't ship him anywhere else. After his stint in the emergency room, we decided that the best place for him was the Millions Toxigenic Ward, even though that's generally used for poisons."

"Wait," Shroud said. "I was under the impression that he was poisoned. Are you telling me that he wasn't?" Chris could understand why Shroud was worried about his brother, but if Shade was the same as he remembered, he could easily guess why his symptoms would resemble a poisoning, and the doctor soon confirmed his suspicions.

"Your brother only appeared to be poisoned because he had an adverse reaction to a drug that entered his system through an injection of some sort, if the small puncture in his neck is the source, as we believe. It's hard to tell, but it seems that the drug itself wasn't the problem, but it combined with another drug in his system already, one that we haven't isolated yet. Neither your wife or your friend here could inform us of what it was."

Chris could. "It was adthevitalite," he said, startling all eight of his companions, although Shroud's son seemed only vaguely so. "It means near-god-life-product, or perhaps a more fluent translation would be near-divine supplement. Its street name is demi, as in **demi**god, but--"

"Get to the point, Chris," Shroud said, looking sharply at him. Obviously, he didn't like learning that he had known less about Shade than he'd thought.

"If you insist, although I would have thought you would have known about it. It's never been well known outside of Nation Z, but its primary components; the ruby orchid, the bark of a live willow, and the blood of a viper, amongst other things; they are all found nearby Setan Academy, and it is used there as the spice needed for the Final Cup." Shroud blanched, as he'd expected. At Setan, one of the final tests was to drink from the Final Cup, containing a potent brew of tea, with the drug mixed in. If you drank it, you either died, or graduated, allowed to learn the method of brewing the drug and proceeding into the higher mysteries. If you refused, you were cast out. Shade had told him long before that Shroud had refuse, and he himself had later learned that the leaders of the time had subtly encouraged Shroud to refuse, for he would have died had he taken that lethal sip.

"If it's as unknown as you say," the doctor said, almost as curious as he seemed disapproving, "then how do you know of it, and that Mr. Taruka would be taking such an unpleasant sounding drug?"

"Because I've tasted it myself," Chris said, somewhat blithely despite the shock his words held, "and given Shade's business, I can't see him not taking it, given its rather useful side-effects. He has stabilized, correct?" The doctor nodded, so Chris continued, saying, "In that case, introduce whatever you'd use to treat a snakebite, and keep an eye on him to make sure whatever else he has in his system doesn't react with it. He should be awake in about a half hour." The doctor nodded hurriedly and rushed ahead of them, leaving the others to stare at Chris.

They were soon seated in the hospital's waiting room, and the focus was on Chris again. "All right, Chris," Shroud was saying, flanked by Matthias and Mikoto on his left and right. "Now, tell us what you know about this 'demi', and how you know so much more about Shade than we thought."

"Well," he began, his mind beginning to bring back the memories of the years long past, "as you know, Shade and I were close friends in the latter years of the Chaos Union. After we'd gotten ONB clearance, he and I were the only ones not to accept honorary ONB-status, even though we would remain rogues afterwards, like Matthias and Golex did. He refused because he knew they'd be able to reclaim the Synchro Chip he'd stolen. I refused because Shade suggested to several of us that we do so, and I was the only one who decided to follow his lead. After that, we just ended up befriending each other, if only because of that shared bond. Turned out that not claiming that status helped out later in life; Nation Z refused to let anyone with ties to the ONB into the country on non-government business after we blew their military bases to pieces, so if we'd formally joined, we'd never had been able to join Setan after the incident that disbanded the group."

"At Setan, we trained together, and eventually managed to graduate, drinking from the Final Cup and receiving the tattoo that marked us as having completed our education there. Then, we received the choice of staying at the Academy to learn more of their art, or simply returning to the outside world. Very few people in our class realized that there was more, as it was not publicized. Shade and I knew from spying on our instructors, however, and had already made our decisions. Shade would leave, to become a bounty hunter alongside his netnavis, Vincent, Auron, and Amarant, and I would remain to study further at the academy, learning the skills that I could later teach him. Turned out that I'd end up sworn to secrecy about most everything, but one of the things that I wasn't forbidden to divulge was the recipe for Demi, and Shade began a regimen of the stimulant. Its side-effects are relatively mild, and it's only illegal because most law enforcement agencies don't know enough about it to legalize it. Neo Arcadia's one of the few nations where it is legal, but something tells me it's merely an oversight."

"So, do you use this…demi, Chris?" Matthias said, crossing his arms in his lap.

"No," he replied. "I try to keep foreign substances out of my body, despite their possible benefits." That wasn't the reason, of course, but they couldn't know that. Too much demi made one incapable of utilizing the Artifacts, and Chris needed the ability to use his. "But Shade would, and it would be among the most useful aids in his bounty hunting. Demi enhances all your senses phenomenally, your hearing and sight most prominently, but your feelings of touch are changed as well, allowing you to feel the displacement of air from a door swinging closed, and one's scent is great enough to scent a poison within a steak fifteen feet away. Some drugs give the illusion that your senses are enhanced. Demi gives you true sensory enhancement."

The others sat and looked at him. Shroud's face showed enlightenment, as if Chris had just revealed some deep secret to him. Given Shade, it probably had been. Matthias seemed only surprised, but Mikoto seemed…interested, for some reason. "So you know how to make it?" she said, an odd look in her eyes.

"Yes," he said hesitantly. "But the process takes more time than I have to spend. Perhaps you could discuss it with Shade when he's awakened." She seemed disappointed, and Chris surreptitiously looked over at Jules to see his reaction. He wasn't really paying attention to the conversation, being distracted by his 'nephew' Saishi. Chris wondered if he realized what a viper he had married.

The conversation began to drift to more benign topics, until the doctor reappeared. "Your suggestion proved effective," he said to Chris, obviously surprised. "He is half-awake now, and you may go in and see him. Not any more than five of you, though. Hospital policy."

Shroud looked them over. "Well, I'm going in, of course. Anyone interested in staying behind?"

"I will," Jules said, now holding Saishi in his lap. The young child had met most of his relations only recently, and was latching onto each of them like a new toy. It seemed that Jules was similarly infatuated with the boy. "I can watch Saishi so that Irine and Miko can both go in."

"All right," Irine said, getting up from the floor. "Seija, would you like to come as well?" Her daughter nodded, and got to her feet as well.

"Well, if the four of us are going, then who'd like to join us, Matthias or Chris?"

"Chris knew him better," Matthias said from his chair. "Let him go. I'll be in Neo Arcadia longer anyways."

"Thanks," Chris said as he stood, Shroud and Mikoto following his lead. The doctor led the way down the hall, and a few rooms down the line, they entered Shade's room.

The room was an austere shade of grey that bored the eye, forcing one to focus their attention on either whoever was in the bed, or the bright posters detailing what poisonous snakes dwelt in the Twilight Desert, and how to treat their bites. Since Chris didn't care about the Arcadian cobra, he looked at Shade. His friend was pale and tired looking, but he was alive and awake, and just being able to meet him again after these years brought a smile to his face. Shade smiled as well as he saw the five of them surround his hospital bed, but his smile spoke of illness barely held back.

"Nice to see you again," Shade said softly, looking around at the assembled group. "Even if I don't recognize half of you."

Shroud rolled his eyes. "I should hope I'm one of the half you recognize."

"Yeah," he said, studying them. "You and Chris. You ever decide to mix up some of that demi, buddy?"

"Sorry, Shade. Not yet."

"Too bad. It gives you one heck of a rush." He looked over at Irine and squinted. "And this must be Irine. You picked a good one, Shroud, she certainly aged well. And so if you're Irine," his eyes moved to Seija. "then you must be my niece. You're the spitting image of your mother."

"Thank you," she said shyly; Shade may have been the spitting image of her father, except for a few extra scars, but he was still a stranger to her.

"I don't suppose you'd remember me?" Mikoto asked.

Shade looked at her a moment. "I…I thought…" he shook his head, whatever he'd been thinking lost. "I feel like I've seen you before, but I just can't remember. I can't remember anything."

"It's Mikoto," she said briefly, and Shade's eyes widened in realization. But Shroud cut her off before anyone else could speak.

"What do you mean, you can't remember anything?" Shroud asked.

"The last thing that I remember completely was getting on the plane to Neo Arcadia. After that, it's all a blur. I remember that I wanted to contact you, but I couldn't for some reason."

"So you don't remember who poisoned you then?" Chris asked, considering several options in his mind.

"No," Shade said, "but whoever they were, they didn't do a very good job of it. I'd assume they meant to kill me, but the demi in my system made it go haywire, right?"

"That's what the doctor thinks," Mikoto said. "The sedative that was injected into your system reacted with this 'demi' to put you into a coma. It almost killed you, according to him."

"Is that right?" Shade said faintly, as if talking this long had weakened him somewhat. Chris nodded almost robotically, only half-following the conversation. He knew that it would be very easy to discover who had poisoned Shade. But gaining the knowledge was quite risky, and could very well kill him. It seemed that since Shade hadn't died, finding the person who'd attacked him seemed like a task that wasn't worth the risk.

"All right, all right," the doctor said, moving from his position against the wall towards them, ushering them out of the room. "We'll call you if there's any changes, but he needs to sleep off this, okay?"

"Gotcha," Shroud said, backing away from his brother. "Get well soon, Shade."

"Yep," his brother muttered, beginning to drift off into sleep. The group exited the room and returned to the others, briefly commenting on Shade's condition.

"Well, it was nice of you to allow me to join you," Chris said a few minutes later. "But I really should be heading back to my hotel. Did X say that he wanted to talk to us tomorrow or something?"

"Yes," Shroud said, seemingly reluctant. "but don't bother to go. I'll talk to him about everything. Including…" He trailed off. They all knew what he was talking about.

"I'll just fly home tonight then," he said. "There's nothing tying me here, and I have some loose ends to tie up at home. I hope to see you all again sometime."

"Same here," Shroud said. "Feel free to get in touch anytime."

Chris nodded, and walked away from the others. He was alone again, alone as he had always been since the day that the Chain of Argent was draped around his neck. He'd forsaken everything he'd held dear for the piece of silver around his neck, and something told him that it had just ceased to be enough. Perhaps it was time to pass the Chain of Argent to another fool who thought they could bear it.

-

-- Sunday, April 20, 5:36 PM, 1580 Iota Complex, Neo Arcadia --

-

Seija finished dialing from her computer and then sat on her bed, pulling a knee up and interlocking her hands around it. Within a few moments, the face of Luke Terre appeared on the screen, and Seija found herself smiling. He hadn't noticed that his online phone system had booted up for some reason, perhaps having the sound on his computer off or something, and she could see him sitting in his swivel chair a few feet from his monitor, looking at something in his hands. As he spun slightly, she could see that it was the picture she had sent him a few days ago; a picture of her sitting next to Liberty Fountain in Beta Complex, and she began to blush.

He suddenly noticed her and twitched visibly. "Seija! I…I wasn't expecting you to call this early." He got up and set the picture on his dresser, and Seija was pleased to see that an empty picture frame lay next to it.

"Stop that," she thought to herself as he sat back into his chair and attempted to look more collected. "Stop acting like you're a little girl. You've only met him once before, there's no need for all this drama." Of course, she tuned out the voice in her mind, as always, and looked over at her computer screen.

"I was going to call after dinner, but we got back from the Marketplace late, so I thought that I'd call you now before you have dinner yourself." In the kitchen below, Seija could faintly hear the voices of Mikoto and her mother as they prepared the famous Whiteheart lasagna. The recipe had been in their family for years, although no one who made it would bear its name any longer.

Luke simply nodded. "Jules and Mikoto are the only ones left, correct? And they're returning home tomorrow?"

"Yes. They're over here tonight for dinner, and they'll be flying home tomorrow." A majority of the Chaos Union had left Neo Arcadia quite quickly, some within a day or two of the mission's close. Jules and Mikoto had stayed, however, and so had Link and his family, although they had flown back on Friday. In addition, Brian's wife had flown in, grieving over her husband's death, just to meet X, to talk with him. She had left the meeting enraged, with the mighty leader of Neo Arcadia wiping her spit off of his cheek. Aelita had left the same day. "After that, my dad has another three days left before he's free to leave. Then, it's back to Electopia." Despite the dangers of returning to Electopia, they had decided to return, if only so that Irine could continue to apply Matthias' medication in the comfort of his home.

"All right. How's my dad doing? You said that he had been able to walk a few days ago."

Seija nodded. "He can walk very hesitantly now, and only with a cane, but that should be fixed in a few days. He hasn't gotten any feelings back in the legs though."

But Luke simply shrugged at this piece of news. "Better for him to be walking numb than rolling with feeling, in my opinion. Is that it? Nothing else new?"

"My uncle's up and about again. He still doesn't remember what happened to him, but he's back on that demi of his again, and it's apparently given him enough strength to fly back home to Nation Z. He should be in the air right about now. What's new on your side of the world?"

"Nothing much. John and I are trying to see if we can find a place for us to meet when you get here. We were meeting here at the house, but with my dad coming home soon, we'll need a more permanent location. We'll find something though." Suddenly, he gasped in remembrance, and began to do what looked like opening a new window. "Seija, the Chaos Union made the front page of the Electopian Surge yesterday! I'll send you a copy of the article; you and your father need to see this. I'm surprised that no one else called you already!"

"All right," Seija said, wondering what the Electopian take on recent events was. Their own papers had revealed a majority of the details of what they were now calling the Chaos Conflict, although that name would probably be subject to numerous reediting over the years. Within a few moments, the page had uploaded, and Seija began to read the article.

_Neo Arcadia: The New Home of Chaos?_

_Does anyone remember what happened to them on Thursday the 10th? Anyone? A trip to your grandparent's house, perhaps? A long, fun-filled day of shopping, on or offline? Perhaps a romantic rendezvous with your significant other? The citizens of Neo Arcadia had a more important date that afternoon. A date with death._

_While Neo Arcadia is a sore subject with many of the world's governments, our own included, it goes without saying that they are an important subject nonetheless. However, at four o'clock Dentech Mean Time, Neo Arcadia burst into a panic, and due to the nature of its inhabitants, exactly 43 of which are actually netnavis, the world knew instantly. The CyberNet visibly lagged at four in the afternoon, just after the sun's apex over that little island that causes so much trouble, and the slow-moving netnavis that escaped to the safety of an electronic realm told the world why they needed to leave our dimension, cross back into the world they used to call home._

_Apparently, Neo Arcadia was under attack, a large satellite falling from the sky to crush the entire city beneath its massiveness. The loss of life would be unlike any the world has ever seen. However, the crisis was averted by a group of Neo Arcadian special forces, who boarded the space station and managed to destroy it before it could fully pass through the atmosphere. In Neo Arcadia, this is where the story ends. Lord X makes a thrilling speech the next day extolling the bravery of the soldiers, and of the one that was lost destroying the satellite. Unfortunately, this story has one rather perplexing footnote: the name of this team of soldiers. The Chaos Union._

_Perhaps the more idealistic of us will recognize this as the name of the fabled heroes of nearly two decades ago, who were defeated by a deep tragedy that actually caused the creation of Neo Arcadia. The more pragmatic of you will know that the Chaos Union was a real group, an ONB strike force whose main achievements were the toppling of Nation Z's government and various missions to preserve foreign interests in Sharo and Netopia. The fact that they have been reformed under the leadership of Neo Arcadia has worried Electopian officials, although both the ONB and the Electopian Senate have declined to make any comment on the matter. This worry is not merely limited to our own nation, however, and Nation Z has made a public statement, saying that "any actions of the Chaos Union against Nation Z will be seen as an act of war, and we will take whatever actions we feel necessary against Neo Arcadia._

_In addition to the Chaos Union's involvement, more problems have begun to plague Neo Arcadia. The satellite destroyed by the Chaos Union belonged to the nation of Sharo, and its destruction has brought a startling truth to light: Neo Arcadia has made no alliance with Sharo, despite the comments of Lord X two weeks prior which implied that he had begun work on a treaty with them, and its signing was impending. However, President Chillski of Sharo has stated that "while we planned on allying ourselves with Neo Arcadia, they have failed to supply us with any terms we feel acceptable. We have no permanent alliance with them, and intend on gaining retribution for our lost space station."_

_However, even without the problems caused by the destruction of the Sharoan space station, Neo Arcadia may have proven to have bitten off more than they can chew by reforming the Chaos Union. Their leader, Shroud Taruka, is wanted in both Electopia and Netopia for the murder of Yuichirou Hikari, and both Nation Z and Yumfrica have previously stated that they would turn him over to the proper authorities if he was captured within their jurisdiction. Mr. Taruka is currently working as a member of Lord X's staff, having received amnesty upon his arrival there roughly seven years ago. He looks to be a favored member of the staff, and may have even suggested the idea of reforming the Chaos Union to Lord X himself. With the expulsion of all four human members of Neo Arcadia's Elite Eight, Shroud Taruka is among the most probable candidates for promotion._

_As for the other members of the Chaos Union, the Electopian Surge is not legally permitted to disclose the names of any official members of the actual team, save Mr. Taruka, who is a member of Lord X's personal staff and is thereby allowed to be named. However, with the later addition of a half-dozen members that were not added to the roster, and by cross-referencing them with members who are known to be away from Neo Arcadia at the time, discovering the identities of the remaining five member would be easy for any government, and most, if not all, have already begun background checks on the members of the new Union. Members who joined the team later are Steve Hurr, a repossession agent working out of Dentech City; Golex Tjon, whose netnavi Hyperion is a famed net criminal; Chris Winters, a mercenary who is also rumored to be a graduate of the shady Setan Academy; Raymond Merlo, a teacher at Kotobuki Central; Jules Yukamara, a reclusive programmer from the isle of Swampopolis; and Mikoto Yukamara, Jules' wife who is also a cousin of Shroud's. In addition, Shroud's twin brother Shade Taruka recently checked out of Hikari Hospital citing undisclosed health issues with no record of having entered the country or exiting his own, making him a possible member of the Union as well. Former members who are known to not be a part of this incarnation are Lica Ishida, SSS-License ONB, Hikari Takanawa, a reclusive sharpshooter living peacefully in Kotobuki with his family, and James Damon, a vigilante netbattler working for Sharo who has come forward denouncing the actions of his former comrades._

_Most of these members have already left Neo Arcadia, and show no signs of returning. However, without a public statement from Neo Arcadia regarding their intentions, governments may fear that these seemingly benign members of society have malicious intentions, and are planning to spy on their countries. Still, no allegations have been leveled against any members of the Chaos Union, and so for now, they remain safe to be discrete about their actions._

_In an unrelated note, former Chaos Union member and SS-License ONB Brian Aurion died on Thursday the 10th at approximately 4: 30 PM. He was 36. He is preceded in death by his wife of 17 years, Aelita Aurion, and his 16-year old son Lee Aurion. A memorial service is scheduled for tomorrow, beginning promptly at 6: 30 PM._

Seija finished reading the paper and looked at Luke solemnly. "My father needs to read this," she said.

"Yes, he does," Luke said, obviously not having read through the entire article. "The only members of the team who weren't mentioned were Link, Pavo, Alistor, and my father. Every country in the world will be watching us."

Seija nodded. "I need to go…I'll call you back later." She and Luke said their goodbyes and disconnected. She then printed the entire article and hurried down the steps into the kitchen, where her father was having a conversation with Jules.

"So as I was saying," Jules was saying as she entered the room. "Just because X is designed to be a good ruler of the city doesn't mean that it's right for him to be the only ruler." He appeared to be winning over her father, but Seija suspected that was only because relations between him and Lord X were very strained.

"Dad," she said, approaching him with the article in her hand. "You need to see this." He took the article and read it silently. His eyes widened as he read it, and he passed it to Jules without warning.

"We need to leave this country," he said, now very solemn. "We need to leave before it destroys us."

-

-- Wednesday, April 23, 3: 03 PM, Shroud's Office, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

-

Shroud logged out of the Core Server for the last time, and began to shut down his computer. As the machine began to turn itself off, Shroud opened his desk drawer and began rummaging through it, throwing away a majority of its contents, but shoving the occasional item into his briefcase. "Juno, can you call Irine and tell her--" he stopped, suddenly remembering that his netnavi was no longer with him. Omega's attack on the shuttle had proven to be a killing blow, and Shroud had been able to find no traces of his netnavi online, despite having all of Neo Arcadia's resources available to him.

He finished his work and closed the desk drawer. Now he was almost ready to go, except for clearing off the top of his desk. Pictures of Irine, his children, and one of the assembled Chaos Union made their way into his briefcase, with a slight pause to look at Brian in the Chaos Union picture. It had been taken right before he'd left the Union, and it had been the most complete picture of their roster. Now it was obsolete. Truthfully, it had been obsolete for years, but with Brian dead, something had changed about the picture. Before, it had been an image of what he'd managed to accomplish in his life. Now, it was merely a measure of what he had left to lose.

"Getting ready to leave, Mr. Taruka?" Leite was standing in his doorways, and Shroud smiled as he saw him. Despite the fact that the netnavi was clearly in X's pocket, he'd been a good friend to him over the years, and Shroud knew that he would be one of the few things he'd regret leaving behind.

"Please, Leite," he said, closing his briefcase and stepping around his desk. "Call me Shroud. I'm not your boss any longer." As he walked towards the door, Shroud suddenly realized that Leite was completely blocking his way out.

"Oh, no, Mr. Taruka, I never call my targets by their first names," Leite said, pointing a gun that Shroud hadn't seen before towards his heart. "It makes the kill too personal."

Three shots echoed in the small room.


	15. Time Heals All Things

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the amazing property of the Chaos Coalition.

**Author's Note:** I'm terribly sorry to make you all wait so long for this chapter, but school started this week, and I haven't had much time to write. I can't promise you a strict schedule from now on, but I will say that I will do my best to write this story, no matter how long it takes. Also, I have made some changes that may surprise some of you in this chapter, and the most prominent is the renaming of the New Chaos Union. After some deliberation, I decided that was too long of a name, and I hope that the new one is satisfactory to you. Also, I've decided to give up on the flashbacks because they're a pain to write, and I don't think that a lot of them are useful. Perhaps I'll edit flashbacks in after I finish the story, but I just don't have enough time anymore to waste time writing them. If you want them back, review, if not, enjoy!

-

_**Chaotic We Stand**_

-

**_Chapter 14: _**_Dies Medeor Res Cunctae_

-

Exactly one month, four days, sixteen hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-seven seconds have passed since the murder of Shroud Taruka. By the end of the world, historians will be able to pinpoint this one instant as one of the few defining moments of history, the moments where only the simplest variation would have changed the very course of history. Examples of these defining moments are as seemingly monumental as the bombing of Opal Harbor in Kawai'i by the nation of Kingland, or as seemingly insignificant as the neglect of an ancient Electopian Senator of Roam to ask a very important woman to marry him, which later became the reason for the fall of the Roaman Empire. Regardless of how it had been seen in its own era, by the end of the world, all but one of history's most crucial moments will have been charted out, and proudly displayed in every major city all across the world. The one they would miss was when a college student would decide to give up astronomy and become a dentist, so the asteroid that would obliterate the Earth would never be found until it was too late.

However, in the here and now, Shroud's death was merely a footnote in the developments that were occurring. Neo Arcadia soon appointed four new members to its Elite Eight, members that X felt would follow his orders without question. He proved to be wrong on that count, but they were loyal in their own way. The nation did manage to have a day of mourning for the fallen Chaos Union leader, but no one who truly cared for Shroud bothered to acknowledge it. They would mourn him in their own fashion; after all, X had gotten his martyr. The Vile 5 were blamed for the death almost instantly, especially since they were known to have access to a dimensional chip. Shroud's family didn't care about blame. On one hand, Irine knew that it didn't matter who killed her husband; he was dead, and lost to her. On the other, it only made Seija want to destroy the Vile 5 more.

Ironically, with Shroud dead, his family was now free to emigrate back to Electopia. However, without a home of their own, they decided to move in with the Terres, which created some awkward tension between both Matthias and Irine and Luke and Seija. However, the fresh grief over Shroud's murder has managed to keep their relationships undiscussed, and the eight of them have managed to cohabitate so far.

As for the remainder of the Chaos Union, the release of their names to the general public has caused many of them trouble. While several members, such as Golex or Chris, can simply fade out of the public eye, more prominent members of society have been struggling to avoid persecution for their former status. Raymond only escaped being fired from his job as a netbattle instructor because of legislation that Kotobuki had passed decades ago for a completely different reason, and Jules and Mikoto were forced to move away from their homes in Swampopolis, migrating north to Netopia. However, as a whole, the Chaos Union has managed to keep their families safe, and as a result, the new Chaos Union has begun to flourish.

To keep their parents from uncovering anything, Luke and the others have taken the name Eclipse for their organization, after Luke said during their last face-to-face meeting, "I have every intention of eclipsing what our parents have done before us." The name stuck. The only person to have noticed that their child was hiding something was Pavo, but Pedro simply told him that it was a multinational program for teenagers to help them learn about other cultures. Pavo had accepted the explanation without question, and it had been adopted by the others as a logical excuse for their actions.

The remainder of the world remained fairly silent, biding their time. It seemed that no nation wanted to strike before another, and so the conflict had been drawn into a stalemate. Through the ONB status of half their members (namely, Luke, John, Dakota, and Alistor), Eclipse was able to learn that Electopia was planning on conferring with at least one or two other nations sometime soon, but their low clearance was preventing them from learning more. Perhaps after they finished with their initial training, they would learn more. Fate would strike before they could learn enough to prevent it.

And so, one month, four days, sixteen hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-seven seconds after the death of Shroud Taruka, very few things have changed.

Unfortunately for the new Chaos Union, one of those things is the entire world.

-

-- Tuesday, May 28, 7: 26 AM, St. Francis Cemetery, Electown, Electopia --

-

Irine Taruka knelt before the grave of her husband and laid one single red rose upon the grassy knoll that held his body beneath its crushing depths. She knew that her husband would not be needing this rose, nor any of the other roses that she had set upon this earthen mound. But she knew that somewhere up there, he was appreciating the sentiment.

Still on her knees, she traced the lettering across the stone in front of her. "Shin Taruka," she read softly to herself, a name he had never borne, yet the one that he had asked be put on his tomb. Decades from now, perhaps, his stone would be saved from rebellious teenagers, defacing the graves of those who were famous or well known; few knew Shin Taruka. Her fingers brushed across his date of death, and she bit her lips to hold back tears. She had practice with the technique by now. "Husband to passion," she continued, reading the epithet that he had crafted himself, a double entendre. "Father to chaos. Brother to shadows. Friend to the earth."

She could still hear him explaining the few words to her that solemn night, a few months after they had been married. Shroud had been returning to active duty, and his father had suggested that he write an epithet, 'just in case'. Luckily for them, he had lasted two decades without having to use it. But Irine had known that the day when she would be reading this upon her knees would someday come, and she was somehow glad that it had been so far off, if gladness was an emotion that she still believed that she possessed. "It has multiple meanings, Irine," he had said to her, holding her in his arms on their sofa, both of them with slight tears in their eyes. "A friend to the entire world, if they'll have me, but firstly and more importantly, to Matthias. My brother's name is Shade, but I have ties to what lies in darkness as well. And I am the metaphorical father of the Chaos Union…but hopefully a father to a chaotic brood of children as well."

They had not followed through on that promise that evening, but they had soon after, and their children had certainly be chaotic. But Irine had seen what Shroud had not told her: that he was husband to more than one passion. He loved her, truly and completely, but he loved what he did just as much, if not more. He had even attempted to play Robin Hood for a time after he had been accused of Dr. Hikari's murder, until his heroism attracted the wrong kind of attention. Then it had been all about stealing enough for them to eat and keeping one step ahead of the law and the bounty hunters who'd took it upon themselves to hunt him down. That was why he was dead; because he'd never been able to give up the fight. Not even for the friend of earth, the brother of shadow, the children of chaos, or a wife of passion.

She stood slowly and looked at the grave once more, and then turned away to look at Matthias behind her. She and her children were staying with him for the time being, if only because the four of them had no source of income other than the pension that X was apparently sending them. She would need to find a job of her own, eventually, but for now, it was simpler to stay with Matthias, for all of them. Their children were now close friends, and Seija had begun to attend school with Luke and Marie, while Saishi and Sam were attending the same kindergarten. The five of them had grown extremely close over the last month, perhaps because Seija needed friends to cope with the grief of losing her father and because of the similarities in age between the two younger boys.

Matthias was standing, a miracle in itself, although a cane was in his left hand, pointed into the ground. The cane was more a safety measure than anything else; Matthias could walk almost as well now as he had been able to before his paralysis. However, his 'curing' was not complete. He hadn't regained complete feeling in his legs, and it didn't appear he was going to, after having shown no real change in status in the past week. At breakfast that morning, he had asked her how much of a chance he had of recovering further, and she had been forced to tell him that after a week of no progress, no patient of hers had substantially progressed. He had taken it rather well, but she supposed that for him, simply walking was considered success, and the lack of feeling was livable with. After all, it wasn't a complete deadening, just a partial one. He could still feel things touching his legs, albeit faintly, and the area around the injury was much better than the legs proper, having almost complete feeling. All in all, not a complete success, but a success nonetheless.

"Still hard to believe he's gone," he said as she approached him.

"I've known this day would come for twenty years," she said soberly to him. "There have been some times when Shroud was thought dead, but somehow I knew that he was alive, and that he would return to me. But now…" she pressed her hand to her heart as she looked up at him. "Now he is gone. I've known that he was dead since the minute he was shot, but I wouldn't believe myself until I heard the news with my own ears. And now I am here, and he isn't, and I am no longer the same person without him."

She walked past Matthias towards the car, but he spoke a word from where he stood, and the word startled her. "Soulmates."

She turned slowly to look at him, and saw that he was looking back. His eyes were hiding tears, and somehow she knew that these tears were not for Shroud. She had never really noticed the way that other men felt about her before she had married Shroud; no one else mattered. But once they had married, Irine had been able to stop chasing him blindly, and had seen what she believed few had noticed: that Matthias loved her, even though she was not his to love. That was why she had pushed Alysse into that relationship with him; after her father's kidnapping, she had befriended Matthias, and it had only taken a slight push to turn her friendship into love. But Irine had always known that Alysse's love had never been enough for Matthias.

"You were soulmates," he said, the bitterness of his words only visible from the angle Irine had learned to see them. "Born to love each other, perfect matches. You were the perfect person for Shroud, and he for you. That is why you knew when he died, why you feel a new person without him. Now you are a new person, and the part of you that was tied to Shroud has left with him. You are a lucky woman, Irine, to have found the person you were meant to share your life with."

"Everyone has a soulmate, Matthias," she said, deeply saddened that she had opened an old wound of his.

"You're right," he replied, turning away from her. "But sometimes, your soulmate isn't the person you love."

-

-- 12: 31 PM, Electown High, Electown, Electopia --

-

Luke pushed the door open one-handed and sat beside Seija at their lunch table. Their school had open campus, and had recently put tables outside so that students could enjoy the early summer's fresh air. Luke and his friends had made sure to claim one for their own; not only because there were only a dozen of them, but because it meant that they could discuss Eclipse business without anyone overhearing. Granted, there was the small matter of Luke's other friends to deal with, but luckily, most of them didn't really desire to sit outside anyways, and that took care of that.

The only remaining friends that weren't Eclipse members were Alan, Allie, and John's younger brother Tim, a freshman. Therefore, the group had decided to let them in on part of the secret, and keep them from learning anything else. They told them that Eclipse was a group within the ONB that specifically recruited kids to do missions adults couldn't. The missions were completely classified, but if they were allowed to, they'd let them know. Surprisingly, the bluff worked. Whenever they needed to discuss anything of real importance, they could just let their companions know prior to lunch, and they'd eat at another table, glad to have helped the cause.

Today was one of those days, which meant their table was much less crowded than usual. Luke and John were there, of course, and Seija as well, but the fourth member of the table had come as a bit of a surprise to Luke when he'd literally bumped into him in the hallway. It was Pedro Ferreira!

The young prodigy and his father had apparently decided not to return to Mexico, and so had taken advantage of their pseudo-citizenship in Electopia to enroll Pedro in school. In Mexico, the boy was a senior, almost ready to graduate at the age of 14. However, given the differing standards of education, the school board had decided, after an evaluation, that he would benefit more from two full years, and so he had been registered as a sophomore so that next year, he would be on par with his education level. While it made him among the smallest kids in school, he was easily one of the brightest, having stunned their entire algebra class by acing the test that was taken on his first day, without having studied or learned the material.

So the four of them were the core group, the Electown chapter of Eclipse, so to speak. Electown was the only city to have more than one member of Eclipse living there, with Dakota staying in the ONB dorms in Dentown, Alistor at his home in Kotobuki, and Kitsune all the way across the ocean, on the southeastern coast of Netopia. The time zone difference made it difficult to contact Kitsune, but having their meetings during their lunch meant that he could usually listen in for a while before going to school. Luke checked his watch, and then passed everyone a set of Virtual Visors, or VVs for short. They were the consumer versions of his father's Data Visors, which he sold to the military, and were supposed to be used for VR-gaming. Luke had made some minor adjustments to these, however, and they could now be used to make calls internationally without having to rack up long distance charges. He figured he could probably make tons off of them, but they were probably illegal too, so he kept their existence under wraps as best as possible.

The others slipped the visors on, and soon, digital images of Dakota and Alistor appeared at the table with them, seating themselves in open spaces for convenience. "Hello, everyone," Alistor said, sitting in a chair that didn't match the others'. Luke adjusted the device's perceptions slightly to see the area around him; finding it to be a library, which clashed oddly with the outdoors. Looking at Dakota, Luke saw that he was in his dorm room, sitting on his bed. He must have decided to skip sixth period again. "What's the latest news in your part of the country? And where's Kitsune?"

"He needed to go in to school early today for some reason," Luke replied. "He sent me an email overnight."

"At any rate," Pedro said, getting to the point, "we're recently learned that Neo Arcadia is looking for volunteers to join their version of the ONB, the Digital Guard. They're taking kids as young as we are, and even pardoning criminals and Undernavis. Apparently, the idea is the brainchild of Leviathan, and she's been appointed their leader."

"Odd," Dakota said, typing something into the table; Luke realized that he must have been working at his laptop. "Leviathan seemed the least likely to lead a team like this. After all, she's legally in charge of the navy, but she leaves the running of it to her subordinates. I can't see any reason why she'd form it."

"Well, whatever the reason, we need to keep an eye on it," John said. "Perhaps it would be possible for someone to go to Neo Arcadia over the summer break, and attempt to find out any information. None of us in the ONB can, because we have our training sessions, but the rest of you are free to go if you wish."

"I'll talk it over with my dad," Pedro said. "He should let me go." Luke suddenly noticed an odd look in Pedro's eyes, and it resembled the look of Marie right before she would lie about where she was headed. But there really wasn't any reason for Pedro to lie…was there?

Oddly enough, Seija was silent. While Luke knew that her father's funeral had been exactly one month ago, she had never remained so quiet during one of these meetings, even immediately after his death. The only other time that he had seen her this quiet was when she had been thinking over whether or not to stay in Neo Arcadia after her father had been killed. There was nothing nearly as serious being discussed, unless Seija knew something that they did not about Leviathan. It was possible, but unlikely. Seija generally didn't withhold information of such a magnitude. In fact, she generally told them the instant she gained any new knowledge of Neo Arcadia or the Vile 5, regardless of its importance.

"Well, whoever goes should attempt to speak with Fefnir," Alistor suggested. "He's publicly stated that he wishes he could have done more to prevent Shroud's death, and he's made sure that the Pantheon is looking into the case with their best men. In addition, he was with us for part of our mission in the Twilight Desert, and he knows how dangerous the Vile 5 are, more than any of the other Guardians. Just don't let him realize that we don't have any sort of government sanction. Keep it quiet."

Pedro nodded, and Seija did as well, although without speaking. Luke found that odd, but his thoughts were cut off when he faintly heard a bell, and looked around the campus before realizing that it was coming from the vicinity of Alistor, and it must be his school's bell. "You need to go, Alistor?" he asked, double-checking before they cut off their transmission.

"Yeah," he replied, looking around at something that the others couldn't see. "I'd normally stay, but I have a test in a few minutes, so I can't be late. Pedro, if you decide to go to Neo Arcadia, call me and I'll get you Fefnir's PC code, all right?"

"Got it," the young prodigy replied, and Alistor's image faded away, leaving only five.

"I'd better go too," Dakota said. "I still need to erase my tardy from the database here before I go to lunch. Luke, John, you're still coming here when school's done, right?"

"Yep," the two of them replied, pulling out their new pre-paid Metropass.

"Excellent. Don't be late, or Ishida will kill you. Seriously. Talk to you later, everybody." After receiving his obligatory 'good-bye' from everyone, Dakota faded out as well, and the four remaining removed their visors.

"What do you all think of this Digital Guard thing?" John asked.

"Sounds fishy," Luke said. "I don't know much about Leviathan, but what I do know is that if anyone was to lead the Guard, it would be Harpuia or Fefnir, not Leviathan. I could even see Phantom leading it, but it would probably make him too high-profile for his tastes. But Leviathan doesn't lead anything in Neo Arcadia, not even the navy, which is what she's supposed to be in charge of."

"Could it be a punishment of some sort?" Pedro suggested. "It couldn't be the navy thing, because if so, then X would have formed the Guard years ago. But there's been no significant action taken by any of the Guardians since Fefnir came with our parents on their mission and got his copyroid fried by Omega."

"Then it's a reward."

Luke and the others turned to look at Seija as she spoke the first words she had in the entire conversation. "A reward for what?" Luke asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "But whatever it was, it was good enough that Leviathan could get put in charge of an organization that will eventually rival the ONB, and could potentially save the entire nation."

"What?" John asked, thoroughly confused. "How?"

Seija glared at him and stood suddenly, causing the table bounce and Pedro's drink to spill onto the table. No one moved to clean it up. "Are you three honestly stupid enough not to understand what's going on! Neo Arcadia is going to war!" As Luke, John, and Pedro stared at her, she turned and walked off fuming, muttering about the idiocies of men, and other things that didn't really seem to pertain to the conversation.

"Don't look at me," Luke muttered as the other two looked at him quizzically. "I just live with her."

-

-- 8: 46 PM, Elite Chambers, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

-

Harpuia sat in his assigned position, directly to his father's right. Beside him sat Fefnir, and then Leviathan, and then Phantom, who appeared to be online at the moment, looking vacantly at the humans across from them. They were all people that Harpuia knew, but he didn't know them well, they only having been appointed to this highest of councils a few weeks past. With the revelation that the Vile 5 had managed to completely infiltrate the Elite Eight, X had needed to fill the vacancies, and the four people sitting across from him were the results of those appointments.

Directly across from him, and next to X, was Roger Signas, a shady private investigator who was apparently very high within Phantom's espionage agency. Harpuia had been wondering why Signas would be put into such a high-profile position if he was supposed to be a spy, but when he had asked him about it, the spy had simply replied that he only worked through a spy network, in which other spies reported to him. Joining the Elite Eight was one of the best moves he could make.

The next of the new appointments was Dr. Meredith Berkana, a doctor of some sort who specialized in gene splicing. The doctor was a hefty woman who was never seen out of a dress, and didn't seem an obvious choice for the Elite Eight. However, according to Fefnir, who had sponsored her appointment, she worked in the Pantheon Labs a majority of the time, splicing the robotic parts in with the humanoid ones. Besides, it was always nice to have a doctor or two on the council, even if she was only a doctor of medicine.

Iris Redips was the next on the panel, and this was the one that Harpuia knew the least about. Her appointment was Leviathan's doing, and she was apparently a lawyer who specialized in cases that involved anything of a digital nature, but usually not netcrime. That was generally an open-and-shut case. She was quite young, only 23 or 24, but very intelligent. Unfortunately, her intelligence seemed to be the only qualification that she held, but X had allowed her on the council regardless, perhaps as a good PR move or something. Whatever the case, Harpuia didn't trust her any farther than she could throw him, and unless she was superhuman, that wouldn't be too far.

The last member was Elpizo Tikay, a skilled tactician who had helped advise him and his Sky Army on covert operations. He had expressed a desire for political advancement to Harpuia briefly before he had learned of the Vile 5's treachery, and when the call for human members of the Elite Eight came, Harpuia had quickly suggested him as a member. Elpizo was also a gifted fencer, and had managed to hold his own against Harpuia for quite some time, an admirable feat for a human. Harpuia smiled at him when his eyes reached him, and Elpizo did the same, delivering a slight nod in greeting.

"Now that everyone is here," X said, "we can begin our meeting. Now, we'll start with reports from Elpizo, and work our way up. Elpizo?"

The tactician cleared his throat and pulled some papers out of a folder. "If you will all look at Pages Two through Four of your agendas," he paused while the others shuffled through their copies, "you will find my suggested plan for the upcoming months. We need to remain constantly aware of any changes in foreign affairs, but I feel that the plan I have laid out is broad enough that only a monumental change would cause a complete discarding of it. Feel free to read over that a moment."

Harpuia took his advice and skimmed the document. He wasn't sure he approved. It seemed that one of Elpizo's 'monumental changes' was all out war, because the general idea of the plan was that Neo Arcadia would just continue to go about life in the same manner that they had before, except with an increased funding of money they might not have into the military, and some new foreign policy. He didn't really want to shoot down one of his subordinates, (although Elpizo was only technically a subordinate, now that he had his new position) and he didn't need to. Fefnir did that for him.

"Where's the war in this proposal?" he cried, throwing the papers to the table with enough force to cause it to twitch; barely perceptible to the netnavis, which meant that the humans hadn't even felt it. "We're obviously going to fight someone in the future, considering that every nation on the planet hates us! And yes," he obliged, before Elpizo could get any words out, "I see that you have allocated funds for the Pantheon and the Divine Armies. But you have neglected the Digital Guard, and you have also neglected to notice that we do not have the funds for such an allocation."

"Well, if you will note Page Three, on the leftmost column, you will see that I've applied a tax on copyroid purchases and rentals--"

"No, Elpizo," X replied. "Half the population of this city resides in those copyroids, and I have made promises to my people that we will not tax on anything necessary for life, and to a netnavi, a copyroid is necessary for life. You will need to find your funds elsewhere. However, I do see the merits of this proposal, and so I'd like you to arrange a meeting sometime this week when I can discuss it more thoroughly with you."

Elpizo decided to take that as a decent compromise, and then passed the baton to Iris, who had a rather long-looking proposal in front of her that Harpuia didn't see in his agenda. She soon informed them of what it was, however, and he wished that she hadn't told them. "I'm quite sorry to inform you all that what I have been privately fearing for has come to pass. SAXA, Sharo's space program, is suing Neo Arcadia for the destruction of Space Station Algebar. In addition, they are suing X personally, although this is overridden because of his position as head of state, the Chaos Union, which is no longer an organization of ours and is presumably soon to be thrown out, and against SANA, which I am afraid we will have to contest as well."

Fefnir immediately began to curse when she finished, which surprised Harpuia. Not with the cursing itself, but that he knew what a lawsuit was. A majority of the other men at the table followed his lead, albeit for a much shorter period of time, but Leviathan both sat stoically, revealing nothing. And in so doing, revealing everything. "You two already knew about this, didn't you? That's why Iris is on this council! Because you screwed up, and now you need an Attorney General to fix it!" The table drew silent; the blatantly loud kind of silence where the shuffling of papers, hands, and chairs nearly manages to drown out the roaring in their ears. Harpuia had been vehemently against the reformation of the Chaos Union, and Phantom and his network of spies had agreed with him, saying that the Chaos Union was not a stable enough organization for their purposes. However, Leviathan and Fefnir had been all for it, and X cast the deciding vote that had gotten them all into this mess.

"What I don't understand," said Phantom, his voice nearly quieter than the silence, "is why we can't just ignore the lawsuit. It's not like there's a global court or anything. If we choose not to recognize the suit, they can't do anything about it."

"Except go to war," Iris replied. "Wars have been fought over less, and in truth, we are liable for the destruction of that satellite. In fact, if X hadn't banished the Vile 5 and removed them from his council before sending up the Chaos Union, they'd have an airtight case. The only option I can see is to throw the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Chaos Union, and more importantly, Shroud Taruka."

"In case you haven't noticed, Shroud is dead," Harpuia said.

"Exactly." Leviathan now, speaking for the first time. "It's hard to sue a dead man. With his family out of the country, they're safe from our jurisdiction, and so they'll have to posthumously convict him, and that means that they won't bother."

A horrible thought began to occur to Harpuia. What if…no, she couldn't have. Not even Leviathan was calculatingly cold-hearted enough to do that. But still…X interrupted his train of thought. "That is enough for now. Our legal matters can be discussed later, amongst the parties that are actually going to be involved." In other words, shut up, Harpuia, I'll tell you about it later. Harpuia shut up.

"I guess I'll go next then," Dr. Berkana said, speaking in her soprano tones that sounded unrealistic when you looked at her. Before meeting her, Harpuia had never realized that someone her size could have such a high-pitched, girly voice, especially not at the age of 49. "Pantheon production is going well of late, and we're managed to increase our monthly production of officers to ten, a rise of two from last month. In addition, all Pantheon members who come into the facility for diagnostics or repairs are in complete working order upon their leaving. So, all in all, it's been a good month. I believe you're next, Roger."

Harpuia saw the slight wince in Signas' face, he seemed to dislike being called by his first name. "Well, Lord X, Phantom and I have decided to present together, since our independent networks have managed to discover some of the same things. To begin with, we have managed to discover that nearly all of the world's nations are being invited to a conference in an un-disclosed location. This is where our sources differ. Mine believe that the meeting is to be held in a neutral location, such as Mount Belenus, or perhaps Kawai'i. Phantom's believe that Creamland will be hosting the conference."

"That's preposterous," Iris said, rolling her eyes. "Doesn't anyone here pay attention to the rest of the world? Creamland has closed its borders, and none of their own people come in or goes out, much less the diplomats of foreign nations."

"All the more reason for my source to be correct," Phantom said. "No one would create so foolish a lie unless there was some truth to it. At any rate, it doesn't matter, because wherever it is, we're not invited, and so we know the subject matter. Us." A silence enveloped the room for a moment before he spoke again. "At any rate, we have two other pieces of information to share with you. One is that leaders in Choina have been spotted conversing with Sharoan officials, which leads us to believe that they are planning a bloodless coup. The other is that we have narrowed Shroud's murderer down to someone on staff, rather than an assassin robot masquerading as a staff worker. There are no clues that suggest outside involvement, and so Signas and I are of one opinion in that you need to question your workers soon, especially any who appear to show some signs of leaving or quitting."

"Thank you, Phantom, Signas. I will keep your words in mind." Phantom simply nodded, and Signas did nothing. Harpuia suspected that Signas reported only to Phantom, and just because X was at the head of the table didn't change that. Leviathan's report was next, and Harpuia readied himself for whatever she had to say. Ever since the Digital Guard had been announced, she'd been more arrogant than ever, and Harpuia hoped that this meeting wouldn't develop into a shouting match.

"The Digital Guard is progressing nicely. Several members of the Divine Armies have already transferred in, and I plan on giving one or two of them high-ranking positions. I have already appointed Siro Eterna to lead the Guard, and appointed Max Caplin to train our recruits."

"In case you didn't notice, sister," Harpuia said, a bit irked to have lost Caplin in the first place. "Siro Eterna is a convicted murderer in most countries. And don't lecture me about amnesty and how Shroud was considered a murderer as well. He was convicted, marked for death, and managed to escape. You can't honestly be considering having him lead our version of the ONB."

"I already have. I've scheduled a press conference for later this week to announce his appointment to the media. Mr. Eterna's murders were executions, and they were only outside the law because the law could do nothing about it. His 'victims' killed his entire family. Now, as I was saying, we have several recruits already lined up, but there are some teenagers who have privately messaged me with an interest in joining."

"No children, Leviathan," X said, his voice firm. "We already agreed upon this. Only legal adults may enlist. We are not the ONB, so eager for fresh talent that we shall pull them from their homes before they can drive a car."

"I think that you shall change your mind when you see the names of the people who messaged me. They are listed with the remainder of my presentation on Page Seven of your agendas."

Harpuia opened his folder just like everyone else, and his eyes widened as he read the names. "Leviathan, you can't be serious. These three have asked to join?"

"Yes," she said, a smirk evident on her face. She had won, and they all knew it. "Shall we put the matter to a vote?"


End file.
